42 Rev. Robert Godfrey 



joins the throng that gathers to the feast. It generally occurs 

 singly or in pairs, and, from one or two observations I have made, 

 appears to be of a quarrelsome disposition. A nest brought 

 with its owner on 2nd December, 1911, was a swinging cup-shaped 

 cradle suspended by several points of attachment to a branch, and 

 composed almost entirely of a greenish lichen with long wiry 

 stems. The outer portion of the nest was somewhat loose, but the 

 inner compact. Some slender plant stems were inserted between 

 the cup lining and the foundation. The nest measured 89 mm. 

 across the inner diameter of the cup. The two deeply-incubated 

 eggs were of a faint creamy ground colour, spotted and blotched 

 irregularly and sparingly with sepia and with dull steel spots 

 intermingled. On one of the eggs the sepia blotchings ran into 

 scribblings. 



Red billed Oxpecker — Buphagus er'^ihrorhynchus (Stanl.) : 

 Our local museum contains a specimen obtained at the Blue 

 Quarry, Kingwilliamstown, by Peter Smith, on 10th January. 

 1907. This constitutes the only record from our area. 



Wattled Starling — Creatophora carunculata (Gm.) : A certain 

 historical interest attaches to this species on account of its asso- 

 ciation with the great locust invasion of 1869, some details of 

 which have been supplied by Dr. Gumming of East London and 

 his brothers. Hordes of locusts invaded Alice, Dr. Gumming*s 

 home, and laid their eggs in such numbers that the country later on 

 was black w^th voetgangers. White Storks and Wattled Starlings 

 came in thousands, and the swarms of the latter wheeling about 

 would, in passing, sometimes almost obscure the sun. Occasionally, 

 when they passed the single telegraph wire, a number of these 

 starlings would be killed or maimed by striking the wdre in their 

 rapid flight. Hundreds of Watded Starlings built nests in the 

 thorn trees along the Tyumie below Alice. The **nests** were as 

 large as those of the Hammerhead, but, instead of being single 

 nests, they were huge conglomerations of separate nests and were 

 in some cases so heavy that they broke the supporting branches. 

 The youthful bird-nesters of Alice had the time of their lives 

 and came home at nights with long strings of blown eggs. Dr. 

 Cumming*s father, together with some other gentlemen, repre- 

 sented the matter to the magistrate and orders were issued that 



