• ' Hwiey Cuckoo aiid Cape Swallow. 115 



particularly fond of honey, cannot procure it but by the aid of 

 others. It therefore watches the appearance 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 at- 

 tends 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, rhinceros, 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 Indicators 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 disappointment 

 of both. 



" The Swallows are migratory at the Cape as well as in Eu- 

 rope ; and appear at Algoa Bay in the month of September, 

 Of the three species which I observed there, one is the Hirundo 

 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 re- 

 sembled a longitudinal section of a Florence oil-flask. 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 improvement in the pla» 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, I ob- 

 served 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 



