NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



birds under the erroneous belief they are fiskal 

 shrikes, they unfortunately having a superficial 

 resemblance to that bird. The fiskal shrike, other- 

 wise known as the jack hanger or butcher bird, 

 is hated by boys because it 

 sometimes kills pet cage birds 

 by settling on the cage and 

 seizing them between the wires 

 in its powerful bill, with which 

 Nature has provided it for its 

 mission in life as an insect 

 destroyer. 



The reduction of the silent 

 bush robins resulted in a plague 

 of these hairy caterpillars, and 

 considerable damage was done 

 every spring to pasturage and 

 gardens, all because of the 

 thoughtlessness of boys due to 

 lack of proper teaching. 



In various parts of South 

 Africa, principally in the neigh- 

 bourhood of villages, I have 

 seen large areas almost denuded 

 of vegetation by grasshoppers, cut-worms, and cater- 

 pillars. The mischief does not end with the loss 

 of pasturage. Rain falls, and the water rushes rapidly 

 off the hard, sun-baked surface, and on its way 

 to the nearest spruit or river it cuts fissures which 

 develop in time into large dongas and carries away 

 the soil, leaving stones and pebbles in its wake. 



78 



Caterpillars eat up the 

 pasturage. 



