P.UV.jS of TtlE BUFFALO BASIN 81 



Btarliiig, the black-collared barbet and other species, 

 about the stately kaffirbooni, and render the blazing red 

 blossoms of the still leafless tree a scene of incessant 

 activity. Though, as a rule, these honeysuckers perch on 

 the flowers to suck the nectar, they occasionally extract 

 the honey while hovering over a blossom. Nor do they 

 despise sueli lowly flowers as the Red Dagga {Leonotis), 

 beloved of their lesser double-collared cousin, and, like 

 their confreres, they vary their honey-diet with insects 

 captured in the air. 



In full breeding-plumage, when clad in his metallic 

 green livery and sporting two elongated and ornamental 

 central tail-feathers, the male never fails to evoke ad- 

 miration. Though around King William's Town odd' 

 males may appear in full summer garb before the close 

 of July, the males in general do not deck themselves out 

 in their beauty till the beginning of September. From 

 this time on Avar ds till the latter part of April, and even 

 the beginning of May, they retain the brilliant robes of 

 courtship. 



With the assumption of the summer livery, the males 

 undergo a marked change in their disposition anrl de- 

 velop for the space of several months a fiery tempera- 

 ment. They pursue one another with headlong flight 

 about the bushes to the accompaniment of shrill, racketty 

 cry, and so eagerly do rival males engage in the chase 

 that they lose at times the ordinary instinct of self- 

 preservation. .On 11 vSeptember, 1908, two males came 

 <"lasjiiiig through a small window into one of the class- 

 rooms at Pirie, oblivious of all danger till rudely 

 awakened from their paroxysm by the frantic efforts that 

 were made by the children to capture them. One of the 

 birds escaped; the other, after losing his tail-ornaments 

 in the new fray with the children, was captured and 

 brought to me in two portions. The live bird was set 

 free, and the tail-feathers, which had constituted his 

 pride, were sent across the sea for the admiration of 

 Xorthern naturalists. 



