NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



made so buoyant that even a gentle breeze will waft 

 the seeds away through the air for miles. Others are 

 provided with hooks for catching hold of the hair 

 and wool of animals, and so on. 



The farmer by unremitting labour may succeed 

 in keeping his lands comparatively free from weeds, 

 but so long as they are allowed to mature and shed 

 their seed along the fringes of his fields and in his 

 neighbourhood, he will have his lands resown with 

 them. 



It would not pay him to attempt to systematically 

 destroy all the weeds on a large farm. Should he try, 

 he and his employees would have little or no time to 

 do anything else. 



Nature, however, has not unduly favoured the 

 weed in its struggle for existence. A host of enemies 

 attack it. These are the seed-eating birds. From 

 afar they gather and feed upon the seed when it is 

 reaching maturity. As a general rule, a seed-eating 

 bird makes two good meals a day if undisturbed. 

 Small birds, such as vinks, will eat upwards of an 

 ounce of weed seeds a day. When the seed is ripening 

 it is eaten direct from the weed, and at other times it 

 is sought for upon the ground. Even the much perse- 

 cuted dove destroys immense quantities of weed seeds. 

 It is very partial to the seeds of the weed commonly 

 known as mistbreedie (Amaranthus paniculatus). 



I came upon a young farmer one day lying in a pit. 

 He informed me he was shooting off those pests, the 

 vinks (weaver birds). He had already shot thirty 

 or forty on a portion of a harrowed field which had 



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