STURNIDyE. 163 



These singular birds appear in Damara and Great 

 Namaqua Land about the beginning of the rainy 

 season, and mostly leave again upon the return of the 

 dry ; but I suspect that a few pairs occasionally remain 

 and breed, as young birds are to be found throughout 

 the year. 



This species is always found in flocks, often consisting 

 of a hundred or more individuals, which greatly remind 

 me of a flock of European Starlings, and are rather shy 

 and difiicult to approach ; they feed on worms, berries, 

 and insects, chiefly small coleoptera. 



Measurements of a male and a female :— 



198. Buphaga africana, Linn. Greater Oxpecker. 



Le Pique-bccuf, Levaillant's Ois. d'Afr. pi. 97. 

 Bujyhaga africana, Strickland & Sclater, Birds Damar., Contr. Orn. 

 1852, p. 149. 



„ „ Layard's Cat. No. 347. 



„ „ Sharpe's Cat. No. 539. 



I have only observed this species in the middle districts 

 of the Damara country. It is generally met with in small 

 flocks, which visit the cattle in search of the larvae and 

 ticks with which their hides are often abundantly sup- 

 plied ; and, indeed, I never saw these birds, except when 

 they were occupied in thus searching for insects, though 



M 2 



