NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



Yet, curious and strange to say, this class of bird is 

 only afforded a certain measure of protection for the 

 one and only purpose of freeing it from persecution 

 sufficiently long to enable it to incubate its eggs and 

 rear its young until they are large enough to be shot 

 for sport. I have gone carefully into the matter, and 

 find that the services of the majority of game birds 

 are each worth at least £20 a year to man as insect 

 destroyers. Yet they are shot in thousands annually 

 and their bodies eaten ; or sold on the market for a 

 few pence or shillings. 



The feathered enemies of the wire-worm are killed for sport. 



There is another factor in this partial protection 

 of game birds. They are so terrorised by the sports- 

 man with his gun and dogs during the open season, 

 that they flee in wild alarm to haunts as remote from 

 man as they can find. The result is, large numbers 

 live and breed there, and the stock farmer loses their 

 services on his lands. 



The young of altricial birds are helpless at birth, 

 and remain in the nest for a longer or shorter period, 

 according to the species. During this time, which, 

 in the majority of small birds, averages two weeks, 

 and in larger birds three weeks and longer, the parent 

 birds feed the helpless young. For a month after 

 leaving the nest the young birds have still to be 



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