SOUTH AFRICAN BIRDS AND THEIR DIET 



reduce their numbers, and frighten off tlie remainder when the 

 crop has been sown and is very young and also when about to be 

 reaped. Otherwise, it is exceedingly foolish to persecute this 

 eminently useful bird. The guinea-fowl feeds greedily on the 

 maggots and pupae of disease-carrying, blood-sucking flies, 

 house flies, and also those of the blow flies. It therefore aids 

 largely in reducing diseases which ravage the human and sub- 

 human races. The guinea-fowl, by feeding on the maggots 

 and chrysalides of the flies which transmit sleeping sickness to 

 man, and n'gana or tse-tse fly disease to domestic animals, renders 

 highly valuable services ; yet we shoot this splendid ally for 

 " sport " and the pot. 



ORDER XIII.- HEMIPODII. 



The Hottentot Quail. 

 Sand Quail, or Reit Quartel. 



(Genus — Turntx.) 



Diet. — This little quail-like bird lives on the ground in the 

 grass, and feeds on the seeds of grasses and weeds and also on 

 insects, their larvae, and eggs. 



ORDER XIV.— FULICARIiE. 



The Rails and Crakes. 



(Genera — Rallus., Crex^ Orthygometra^ Sarofhrura^ Cottirnicops^ 

 Limnobcenus^ and Limnocorax.) 



Diet. — The rails and crakes live upon the ground and 

 frequent the grass-lands, marshes, reed beds, margins of rivers 

 and ponds, according to the species. Their diet consists of a 

 great variety of species of insects and their larvae, and also worms. 

 All the species of rails and crakes are highly useful allies of man, 

 yet they are shot for so-called sport ; and we find authors 

 enlarging on the tenderness and excellence of their flesh. A 

 live bird of economic value is worth a thousand dead ones. One 



