NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



until dawn. Its food consists of night-flying beetles, moths, 

 mosquitoes, etc. The beetles and moths issue from their 

 hiding-places in order to mate and lay their eggs in crops, 

 pasturage, orchards, gardens, and forests. The night-jar, 

 assisted by insectivorous bats, preys nightly upon these pests, 

 and by so doing destroys the potential parents of untold numbers 

 of destructive larvae. The night-jar is so extremely valuable to 

 man that a very heavy fine, or imprisonment without a fine, 

 should be the penalty to anyone who deliberately destroys a 

 night-jar. 



The Roller. 



(Genera — Cor acta s and Eurystomus.) 



Diet. — The rollers, or blue jays as they are commonly called, 

 feed on an insect diet, chiefly beetles, grasshoppers, and locusts. 

 The roller perches motionless on the top of an isolated tree or 

 the end of a branch and keeps a lookout for insects. I have 

 found young snakes and lizards occasionally in the crops of 

 these birds, and have seen them devour the eggs and young of 

 sparrows and weaver birds. The small amount of harm they 

 may do now and then by destroying the eggs and young of useful 

 birds and lizards is as nothing against the immense services 

 they render in the destruction of grasshoppers and other injurious 

 forms of life. 



The Bee-Eater. 



(Genera — Merops^ Dtcrocercus, and Melittophagus.) 



Diet. — The diet of the bee-eater, as its name implies, is 

 chiefly wild bees. It also preys on wasps, hornets, and other 

 flying insects. These birds would seem to be more harmful 

 than beneficial to man. Bees are of value in the production 

 of honey and wax, and also in aiding to a very large degree in 

 the cross fertilisation of plant life. Wasps and hornets feed their 

 larvae largely on caterpillars and other injurious insects, although 

 many wasps prey on the spider, which is of very high economic 

 value to man. 



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