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Hiryndo capensis. A pair of these built their nest on the 
outside of the house wherein I lodged, against the angle 
formed by the wall and the board which supported the 
eaves. The whole of this nest was covered in, and it was 
furnished with a long neck or passage, through which the 
birds passed in and out. It resembled a longitudinal section 
of a Florence oil-fask. This nest having crumbled away 
after the young birds had quitted it, the same pair, or another 
of the same species, built on the old foundation again in the 
month of February. But at this time, I remarked an im- 
provement in the plan of it, that can hardly be referred to 
the dictates of mere instinct. 'The body of the nest was of 
the same shape as before, but instead of a single passage, 
it was furnished with one at each side, running along the 
angle of the roof; and on watching the birds, T observed that 
they invariably went in at one passage and came out at the 
other. Besides saving themselves the trouble of turning in 
the nest, and disturbing, perhaps, its interior arrangement, 
they were guarded ‘by this contrivance against a surprise by 
‘serpents, which frequently creep up along the wall, or descend 
from the thatch, and‘devour both the mother and her brood. 
* Amotigstan infinite variety of insects, natives of the Cape, 
‘my attention was frequently attracted ‘to the operations of 
that species of beetle, which is termed by Entomologists, 
Scarabeus sacer, and known to the vulgar under the homely, 
but expressive name of Tumble-dung. These insects beat 
about with the sagacity of the best bred pointer, in search of 
the material from which they derive their trivial appellation. 
You sometimes see upwards of a dozen of them assembled 
Tound a cow-dung, and actively engaged in cutting it up into 
‘fragments of a certain size. Their labour, however, is not a 
‘combined one, for the meeting of so many on the same spot 
is merely a proof of the acuteness of one of their senses. 
Sometimes‘a couple of them labour on the same lump, ap- 
parently unconscious of each other's interference; but, in 
‘general, each individual works for itself. When the fragment 
is detached, the insect kneads it, by a dexterous management 
"of its head and legs, into a globular form, preparatory to its 
