lOO SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



Perhaps the most interesting bird we saw that day 

 was either the Great White Egret, or some species 

 closely related to it ; there were about half a dozen of 

 these birds feeding- in the shallow water that formed 

 the edge of the reed-grown vley, but they would not 

 permit of a near approach. They looked fully as large, 

 if not larger than the common Heron, and had yellow 

 beaks, which at once precluded the possibility of their 

 being Little Egrets, of which we saw many later on. 

 We were able to compare the size of these large birds 

 with that of the common Herons, as both were feeding 

 together at the same time, and we noticed that the 

 white birds appeared to be the larger of the two. 



W^e went through the day without finding any nests, 

 rather in accordance with our anticipations. On our 

 way up to the farm-house we saw a pair of Cape Grass- 

 Warblers, which birds we often met with throughout 

 our stay in Cape Colony. On a near approach they 

 would fly up into the air in rather a dancing manner, 

 uttering at the same time a sharp, insistent note. They 

 generally managed to conceal their nests very effectually, 

 and would bend the sprays of a rhenoster, or other 

 small bush, so as to conform them to the needful shape, 

 afterwards fastening these sprays down with threads of 

 grass. Nests of these birds were domed, but the en- 

 trance was always higher up than the centre of the nest, 

 and there was a little portico above this entrance. No 

 doubt the weaving-in of the foliage of plants and shrubs 

 adopted by some of these small birds in South Africa, 

 is done with a view of concealino- their nests from their 

 natural enemies, which must be numerous ; and a nest 

 'thus woven in has the advantage over one placed in a 



