NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



potato plant. The migratory locust, for instance, if 

 allowed to lay its eggs and breed unchecked, would 

 in a few years make farming an impossibility. Aye ! 

 it would sweep the entire country of vegetation and 

 convert it into a barren, useless desert. 



The tick is another insect scourge ; it is parasitic, 

 and feeds on the blood of animals. It reduces the 

 condition of stock animals more or less seriously, and 

 is an active agent in carrying disease germs from one 

 animal to another. 



The female tick lays from 2,000 to 18,000 eggs, 

 according to the species. 



If all our tick-eating birds were destroyed and 

 dipping suspended, these terrible pests would kill off 

 every stock animal in the country. On taking up my 

 residence in a house at Port Elizabeth, surrounded 

 by large grounds and gardens, I was amazed to find the 

 place a paradise of insect life. The flowers and 

 vegetables which I planted were completely eaten off 

 before reaching maturity. Prior to my tenancy, the 

 house was uninhabited for two years, and boys had been 

 in the habit of roaming at will about the premises with 

 catapults and air-guns, murdering any and every bird 

 they could find. Others searched the bushes for 

 nests, intent on robbing them of their contents. The 

 place became a sanctuary for birds on my advent, and 

 within a year the insect army of occupation was 

 annihilated. 



Insects not only breed with astounding and dis- 

 concerting rapidity, but their powers of eating are, 

 if anything, still more amazing. A caterpillar will 



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