NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



beetles, caterpillars, snails, small tortoises, mice. Occasionally 

 it eats carrion. When an animal and insect diet is insufficient 

 for its needs, it eats sprouting grain and seeds. 



Yellow-billed Oxpecker. 

 Tick Bird, Rhinoceros Bird, Rhinaster Vogel. 



(^Buphaga africana.) 



Diet. — Consists of ticks which are taken direct from cattle 

 and other large animals. The birds, by a special adaptation of 

 the toes, are able to crawl all over their host. They sometimes 

 peck at sores on oxen, and eat the flesh and drink the blood at the 

 open part. 



Red-billed Oxpecker. 

 Tick Bird, Camel Bird. 



[Buphaga erythrorhyncha.) 



Diet. — Same as that of the yellow-billed oxpecker. 

 Wattled Starling, or Locust Bird. 



[Dilophus carunculatus.) 



Diet. — Locusts. Great flocks attack swarms of migratory 

 locusts and follow them up until they are exterminated. They 

 also feed on the eggs and young wingless migratory locusts. 

 When locusts are not available, this starling feeds on grass- 

 hoppers and beetles, and will in fact eat almost any kind of 

 insect. It also subsists on the soft red substance attached to 

 the hard black seeds of a '* willow " tree, which is planted by 

 Government on sand dunes and drifting sands along the 

 seacoast. The black seeds are voided with the excrement 

 or thrown up from the crop, and willows sprout up from them 

 all over the neighbourhood. The wattled starling is one of the 

 farmers' most eflicient bird allies. 



