130 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



colour being a coppery-brown, with man\- of the feathers 

 narrowly streaked with white. 



Another note in the forest that would frequently 

 startle one, by reason of its loudness and shrillness, was 

 that of the Sombre Bulbul, which, as its name implies, is 

 a bird of inconspicuous plumage. It has a habit of con- 

 cealing itself in a bush or tree that you may happen to 

 be passing, and suddenly uttering its single note Piet, 

 from which it takes its local name ; this note when 

 uttered close by, has an almost ear-splitting intensity. 



Sometimes in the forest we would come across some 

 slender shoot of a tree that had been carefully twined 

 round one of the many creepers which were so common ; 

 this was done in order that the young shoots might grow 

 up into thick twisted sticks, in the selling of which, as 

 walking sticks, there is a small trade done at Knysna. 

 The woodmen who train these sticks must have many 

 years to wait before they reap their harvest. 



Oddly enough, though snakes are plentiful all over 

 the Colony, and especially in the neighbourhood of 

 Knysna, 1 never saw one during the whole of our stay. 

 Boomslangs, or Tree Snakes, are very common in the 

 Knysna forest, they feed on small birds, and one can often 

 tell of their whereabouts by the chattering of the Bosch 

 Kelkes and other birds. More snakes are seen in the 

 Colony along the high roads, where they lie in the dust^ 

 than in the woods, for in the latter places they naturally 

 hear of the approach of anyone, and make off. Cases of 

 snake-bite are comparatively few in South i\frica, those 

 who are bitten being most often attacked at harvest 

 time, when the bundles of corn are being gathered up, 

 under which the snakes are fond of hiding themselves. 



