BIRDS AND HEALTH 



sets in ? Arc they at play ? By no means. The) 

 are doing battle for us against the hosts of mosquitoes 

 and other night-flying insects which are emerging 

 from their hiding-places. 



What of the tick — the scourge and terror of the 

 stock farmer and dairyman ? Here, again, the birds 

 render sterling service. The ox - peckers or tick 

 birds are specially evolved for the purpose of removing 

 ticks from large animals, for the nature of their toes 



Tse-tse fly disease is fatal to dogs and all stock animals. 

 Guinea-fowls, partridges, pheasants, and thrushes 

 scratch up the pupce of the flies and eat them. 



enables them to climb all over their host — down and 

 up its legs, neck, and round its abdomen. Every part 

 of the hide is inspected. 



While the animals are lying at rest in the fields, 

 the white egret, with dignified stride, walks round 

 the beast and pecks off the blood-gorged blue female 

 ticks which would, if left alive, have laid thousands of 



e gg s - 



The starlings, larks, plovers, crakes, wagtails, and 



other birds search the ground in the close vicinity 

 for any gorged female ticks which have left their host 

 and are seeking a suitable spot in which to lay their 

 eggs. 



103 



