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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 resembled 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 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, I 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. 

 " Amongst an 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, 

 ScarabcBUs 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 

 round 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 



