NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



Red-winged Starling. 

 Spreeuw, Rooivlerk. 



[Jrnydrus morlo.) 



Diet. — Insects and their larvas. They also feed on wingless 

 and winged locusts and termites. During the fruit season they 

 devour soft fruits in the orchards. This diet is supplemented 

 by wild fruits and berries. They search the ground for the 

 gorged female ticks which drop from cattle. These they 

 greedily swallow. 



Pale-winged Starling. 



{Amydrus caffer.) 



Diet. — Locusts, grasshoppers, wire-worms, cut- worms, 

 snails, slugs, caterpillars, termites, wild fruits, and berries. 



Pied Starling. 

 Witgat Spreeuw, White-rumped Starling. 



{Spreo hicolor.) 



Diet. — These starlings visit cattle pastures, outspans, stock 

 kraals, and sheep-runs, and eat the gorged female ticks which fall 

 from their hosts. They also pick the ticks from the bodies 

 of the animals. The pied starling feeds greedily on locusts, 

 grasshoppers, wire-worms, cut-worms, beetles, slugs, snails, ter- 

 mites, and other ground frequenting insects and allied forms of 

 life. Wild berries are also eaten. During the fruit season they 

 are sometimes troublesome in orchards. 



The Glossy Starling, or Shiny Spreo. 



There are several species and three genera [Larnprotornis., 

 LamprocoUus.^ Pholidauges) of these glossy starlings in South 

 Africa. 



Diet. — Their diet consists of insects and larvae of various 

 kinds ; also wild fruit, berries, and seeds of weeds and native 



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