94 



THE OSPREY. 



can be urged against its preservation in such an 

 area as the Broad district, where there are no 

 game fish to be considered. A coarse fishing 

 area such as the Broad district would certainly 

 be benefited rather than injured by the presence 

 of the ospreys: since they would help to thin out 

 the huge numbers of bream that preponderate 

 in such waters. Bream, as a surface fish — in 

 the early morning the streams and lakes are 

 alive with shoals of them tumbling on the sur- 

 face — would be the chief prey of the osprey in 

 such areas, to the advantage of the fishing gen- 

 erally, since the overwhelming preponderance 

 of bream in our sluggish coarse-fishing waters 

 is a nuisance rather than a gain to anglers. 



Its nesting habits, again, should mark it out 

 as a species to be encouraged by those land- 

 owners who have atn- care for the picturesque 

 side of the wild life of their estates. An eyrie 

 of ospreys would be an estate feature of a very 

 notable kind. The nest is a huge structure of 

 sods, twigs and grass, built as high up as the 

 bird can find branches adequate for its support. 

 A tree with a dead top and a lateral spread of 

 branches at the live summit is its favourite 

 building place; and there it spreads out a nest to 

 the width of three or four feet, projecting- out- 

 wardly so far that it is often impossible for a 

 climber to get access to it. In the absence of 

 such trees it will build in old ruins, and even on 

 the bare rock in places difficult of access. The 

 tree-built e3'ries are visible a great distance ofi"; 

 and have a fine efl^ect upon wooded islands and 

 forest-bordering waters. The possession of a 

 stray specimen in a glass case is hardly an 

 adequate compensation for the loss of the living 

 creatures from our English landscape. We 

 would fain hope that the better class of owners, 

 to whom their landlordism is a trusteeship for 

 such purposes, might even now, when the 

 species is so nearly at the verge of extinction as 

 a breeding British species that any such attempt 

 must be doubtful in its issue, take such steps as 

 may yet give us back so interesting a creature. 

 We commend the osprey to the Wild Birds' Pro- 

 tection Society, which we are glad to see is 

 issuing a Christmas card of its own. The 

 Society's best chance of success lies in work 

 amongst children, and the Christmas card 

 makes an apt and graceful device for spreading 

 the gospel of bird-love. That the design is 

 good goes without saying, seeing that it is the 

 work I and gift) of Mr. Archibald Thorburn. 



The CHAR.A.CTER1STIC Birds of Natal and 

 the neighboring Boer States are noticed in The 

 Spectator of London, for January 13, under the 

 caption of Naturalists on the battle field. It is 

 remarked that "letters from Natal and the Cape 

 frontier show that, when not marching or fight- 

 ing, the officers and soldiers find abinidance of 

 interest in the Natural History of South Africa." 

 It seems that a useful little book on the birds of 

 Natal and Northern Cape Colony "'has been pub- 

 lished in Pietermaritzburg bj' R. B. & J. D. S. 

 Woodward (Davis and Son, Pietermaritzburg, 

 2 s. 6 d)." T/ie Spectator has used this in its 

 notice of the birds and so much as relates to 

 them we publish in the Osprkv. "The Tugela 

 Vallev is famous for its birds and flowers". 



"The birds of these regions are curiously 

 mixed. Many, like the shrikes, flycatchers, and 

 swallows, recall our familiar birds. Our English 

 cuckoo and English swallow actually migrate 

 as far as this far Southern continent. In con- 

 trast with these are others not excelled in bril- 

 liant plumage by the birds of the tropics, and in 

 the same Colony in which our common red-backed 

 shrike makes its winter home are the magnifi- 

 cent purple and green turacos, or plantain-eaters, 

 and sun-birds, which rival the brilliant hues of 

 the humming-birds. Whole tribes of dift'erent 

 flycatchers, warblers, and shrikes inhabit the 

 bush. Some of the bush-warblers' nests are 

 triumphs of architecture. One stitches its nest 

 on every side to leaves of laurels by spider-web 

 silk; another sews its home to the leaves of tall 

 weeds by threads of grass. The emerald cuckoo, 

 which has a note much like that of our cuckoo, 

 only with both syllables "long-" -"coo-coo" — 

 lays its eggs in the nests of the Karoo sparrows. 

 The brilliant Whydah finches are well known in 

 Engrlish aviaries. There are hoopoes, many 

 kingfishers, some of which live mainly on 

 locusts and do not touch fish, honey-guides, and 

 swarms of kites and buzzards. One of the best 

 known birds is a large grey shrike, called the 

 "Fiscal." The "Fiscal" was a Dutch Magistrate 

 with a large discretion in the matter of capital 

 punishment, and the ways of this shrike ren- 

 dered the name appropriate. It twists off the 

 heads of small birds, quarters their bodies, and 

 impales them on convenient thorns. English 

 Colonists call it "Johnny- Hangman." When 

 kept in a cage, it will hang up all its food in this 

 wa^- if proper hooks are provided. It flourishes 

 in spite of the reclamation of the Colony-, and 

 has established itself in the parks and public 

 gardens of the towns. The familiar birds of 

 everyday' life, those which correspond to the 

 species best known at home, are always matter 

 of interest in a strange land. In Natal the 

 place of our rook is taken by the black crow, 

 which is gregarious, and increases, just as our 

 rook does, on cultivated land, whence its Colo- 

 nial name of "corn crow." Besides this South 

 African rook there is a white-necked raven, 

 which has the habits of our carrion crow. 

 Before the appearance of rinderpest it was very 

 common. But like the vultures, these carrion 

 crows were poisoned by eating the flesh of the 

 oxen killed by the plague, and died oft" in num- 

 bers. The great vulture of the hills, the "Aar- 

 vogel." was seen both at Magersfontein and at 

 Modder River soaring over the kopjes. It is the 

 same bird as the griffon vulture of Southern 

 Europe, almost the largest of the flesh-eating 

 birds of the Old World. Nor must the secre- 

 tary-bird be forgotten, which is protected by 

 law, and almost domesticated on man^- farms, 

 on account of its reptile-killing habits, or the 

 "smoke-bird." a black shrike, which follows the 

 bush fires and feeds on roasted insects and grilled 

 mice. Though our English swallow flies as far 

 south as the old Colony, the domestic swallow 

 of South Africa is the red swallow. Its head 

 and back above the tail are red, like the throat 

 of the English swallow. Like the latter, it is a 

 home favourite. The Colonists put up boards 

 as supports for its nests, and encourage it in 



