NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



partridge, guinea-fowl, lark, rail, starling, or any one 

 of the many tick-devouring birds, in a single season is 

 capable of killing vast swarms of ticks directly and 

 indirectly. 



I have found as many as fifty gorged female ticks 

 in the crop of a single cattle egret {Bubulcus ibis). 

 Taking the minimum number of eggs laid by one of 

 these ticks at 2,000, we have the tremendous total of 

 100,000. In the crop of a quail, eight of these 

 mature female ticks were found. This, multiplied by 

 2,000, makes a total of 16,000 ticks accounted for by 

 one bird in a day ; or, during the course of the spring 

 and summer, the colossal number of 3,000,000 ticks 

 would have been accounted for by one quail. 



Twelve crowned lapwings (Stephanibyx coronatus) 

 or kiewitjes, as they are popularly termed, were shot 

 during December on a cattle-frequented veld. Nine 

 of these contained an average of five blue female ticks 

 distended with blood or eggs. Again, taking the 

 minimum number of eggs laid by each tick at 2,000, 

 we have a total of 10,000 ticks accounted for by 

 each bird in one day. In three months these birds, 

 eating female ticks at the rate of five per day, would 

 account for 1,000,000. If these had survived, and 

 taking half their number to be females, the following 

 season they would have totalled something like 

 6,000,000,000. 



Yet we find otherwise reasonable, intelligent, 

 humane, and unselfish men deliberately slaying these 

 tick-destroying birds for sport, and for the pot, or to 

 obtain a few paltry pence for their plumage. We also 



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