THE BEE CUCKOO, OR MOROC. 127 



Having, in consequence of the bird's directions, found and plun- 

 dered the nest, the hunters, by way of acknowledgment, usually leave 

 to the bird a considerable share of that part of the comb in which 

 the young Bees are hatching; and which is probably to it the most 

 acceptable morsel. 



The above account of Dr. Sparrman has undergone some severe 

 though ill-natured animadversions, from the pen of Mr, Bruce. I 

 shall insert them in his own words. "1 cannot (he says) conceive 

 that, in a country where there are so m.any thousand hives there was 

 any use for giving to a bird a peculiar instinct or ficulty of discover- 

 ing honey, when, at the same time, nature hath deprived him of the 

 power of availing himself of any advantage from the discovery; for 

 man seems in this case to be made for the service of the Moroc, which 

 is very different from the common or ordinary course of things: man 

 certainly needs not this bird ; for on every tree and on every hillock 

 he may see plenty of honey at his own deliberate disposal. I cannot 

 then but think, with all submission to these natural philosophers, 

 (Dr. Sparrman, and Jerome Lobo, who has also given an account of 

 this bird,) that the whole of this is an improbable fiction : nor did I 

 ever hear a single person in Abyssinia suggest, that either this, or 

 any other bird, had such a property. Sparrman says it was not known 

 to any inhabitant of the Cape, any more than that of the Moroc was 

 in j^byssinia; it was a secret of nature, hid from all but these two 

 great men, and I most willingly leave it among the catalogue of their 

 particular discoveries." 



Dr. Sparrman says, that a nest which was shown to him as belong- 

 ing to this bird, was composed of slender filaments of bark, woven 

 together in the form of a bottle: the neck and opening hung down- 

 wards; and a string, in an arched shape, was suspended across the 

 opening, fastened by the two ends, perhaps f )r the bird to perch on. 



Mr. Barrow, who in the years 1797 and 1798 travelled into the 

 interior of the southern extremity of Africa, fully confirms the truth 

 of Dr. Sparrman's account. Pie says, that every one there is too well 

 acquainted with the Moroc to have any doubt as to the certainty, 

 either respecting the bird, or its mode of giving information concern- 

 ing the repositories of the Bees. He tells us further, that it indicates 

 to the inhabitants with equal certainty, the dens of Lions, Tigers, 

 Hyaenas, and other beasts of prey and noxious animals. M. Le 

 Vaillant ■ says that the Hottentots are very partial to the Moroc, on 

 account of the service it renders them ; and that, once, when he waa 

 about to shoot one, they on that account begged him to spare ita 

 life. 



THE SPURRED CUCKOO. 



This strange bird is found in Africa, the East Indies and the Malay 

 Islands. It possesses a very powerful and much curved beak, which is 

 compressed at its sides ; the tarsi are liigh, and toes comparatively short ; 

 the hinder toe is armed with a very long and almost straight spur-like 

 claw. The extremely harsh plumage is similarly coloured in both sexes. 

 Their powers of flight are limited and only employed in oases of danger. 



