NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



One aphis can become the parent of billions 

 during her brief life of a summer season. 



I have found thousands of plant lice in the stomachs 

 of warblers. When large animals trouble us we can 

 shoot or poison them, but we are practically powerless 

 against the insect hosts without the aid of our feathered 

 friends. 



TERRITORIAL HABITS IN 

 BIRD LIFE 



When we say a bird or animal is territorial in its 

 habits, it means it restricts its range to a certain area 

 or territory, and regards it as its own by right of 

 conquest in precisely the same way as the human 

 race has done from time immemorial. 



Some species of animals and birds secure territory 

 and hold possession of it for the remainder of their 

 lives, or until driven out by stronger rivals. For 

 instance, a troop of chacma baboons will take possession 

 of a portion of a range of stony hills, a kloof, or 

 rugged isolated mountain, and regard it as their own. 

 A troop of vervet monkeys will do likewise with a 

 certain area of bushland. Birds, such for instance 

 as the well-known fiskal shrike or johnny hangman 

 and his wife, are strictly territorial, and remain so 

 during their lifetime, and will not tolerate rivals of 

 their own species on their hunting grounds. 



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