BIRDS AND POOD 



in summer countless hosts of winged and fertile male 

 and female termites pour out of their ancestral home 

 and fly into the air for a few hours. Descending to 

 the ground, the wings are discarded, and they go 

 forth in pairs to found new homes. Partridges and 

 quails assemble and greedily snap them off the grass 

 and the leaves and twigs on which they alight. For 

 days these birds search everywhere, scratching up 

 and scattering the loose leaves and soil, and pecking 

 amongst the roots of grass, shrubs, under stones, and 

 in holes for these lurking termites. Every pair of 

 termites destroyed means one colony less. A single 

 colony of termites is capable of inflicting serious 

 damage to man by destroying trees, shrubs, grass, 

 crops, fencing posts, and the woodwork and thatch 

 of houses, etc. Before I succeeded in discovering 

 and destroying a single colony of termites, they had 

 damaged my residence and outbuildings in Natal to 

 the extent of /,'i,ooo. The repairs to tenants' dwell- 

 ings, renewals of fencing posts, and other ravages by 

 these pests cost me an average of ^150 per annum. 



I have found as many as 300 fertile termites in 

 the crop of a partridge, and 85 in a quail. Think 

 of it ! 300 king and queen termites at a single meal, 

 which means 150 colonies less of these terribly de- 

 structive creatures. In addition, the termite workers 

 make daily foraging expeditions, and at these times 

 the partridges and quails surprise and annihilate 

 them. 



A tick lays from 2,000 to 18,000 eggs, according 

 to its species. Partridges are fond or ticks, and peck 



