37 
such an article of food, strengthened perhaps by veneration 
for the dietetical law of Moses, deterred most of us from med- 
dling with it. The fat, melted over the fire, runs into an oil, 
the effluvium of which is deleterious to ants, and keeps those 
insects at a distance from all articles on which it is rubbed. 
The Boors have an idea among them, that this Lizard sucks 
the cows, when they happen to pasture near the banks of the 
river. 
“ The Boors and Hottentots in the vicinity of Algoa Bay, 
collect vast quantities of wild honey, which they find in the 
hollow trunks of decayed trees, in the deserted nests of the 
Termes, (or white ants,) in the crevices of rocks, and in holes 
burrowed in the ground by the chacals and hyenas. The 
hive is usually revealed to them by a bird, called, on this 
account, the Honey-Guide, (Cuculus Indicator.) This feathered 
informant, though particularly fond of honey, cannot procure 
it but by the aid of others. It therefore watches the appear- 
ance of those, from whom it expects the gratification of its 
appetite, and advertising them by a peculiar and well-known 
note, leads the way, flitting from bush to bush, to the spot 
where the hoard is deposited. There is an inconvenience of 
- some moment, however, that attends implicit reliance on the 
call of this extraordinary caterer, which is said to amuse itself 
in leading its unwary follower across the haunt of a lion, 
tiger, donp or other natural curiosity of that stamp, 
which he feels, perhaps, no particular anxiety to study. This 
is universally believed by the Boors, and may be true enough. 
But though we admit the fact, I should think we may safely 
reject the inference. The nature of the country where bees 
and Zndicators are met with, is such, that the latter, in con- 
ducting you to the stores of the former, may occasionally 
cross the path of one or all of those animals; but it can hardly 
be credited that the bird, which, in alluring you, seeks only its 
own gratification, would designedly lead you to the disip- 
pointment of both. 
“ The Swallows are migratory at the Cape as well as in 
Europe: and appear at Algoa Bay in the month of September. 
Of the three species which I observed there, one is the 
