NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



pecks the rotten wood or removes pieces of dead bark 

 to catch and devour the enemies of the trees ; it, in 

 fact, attacks them in their strongholds. 



Woodpeckers, with the exception of the three 

 species of American sapsuckers, are eminently beneficial 

 to forestry, and deserve every possible encouragement 



and protection, therefore 

 let no man raise his hand 

 against a woodpecker. It 

 is a bird which works in 

 the interest of man all its 

 waking hours, and asks no 

 payment, not even a seed 

 or a fruit. Yes, it is a 

 slave indeed to man, but 

 a willing slave, glad and 

 happy to serve him. Man 

 rewards it by shooting it 

 down. His boys are 

 allowed to make collections 

 of its eggs, and the Kafir 

 umfaans roast the nestlings 

 and eat them. 



Man in his folly and 

 ignorance has, in the past, imagined he could dispense 

 with the services of the bird. Every time he made 

 the experiment he failed miserably. With his costly 

 pumps, his sprays, poison baits, and nets, the extent 

 of his achievements are the saving of a limited 

 number of trees. 



Man values lightly that which he gets for nothing 



94 



The Woodpecker rears her 

 children in a hole in a 

 rotten tree. 



