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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, rhinoceros, 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 

 I'eject 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 disap- 

 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 



