NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



nest building proceeds. With others, the sexes pair 

 off before the flock disperses, and they at once seek 

 out a suitable locality for rearing their family. The 

 factors which dominate the birds are : — 



i. A favourable aspect for the nest. 



2. An adequate food supply. 



3. A site as free as possible from enemies. 



Often several pairs of birds build their nests in 

 the same locality; others in colonies. When this 

 occurs the birds know beforehand that the immediate 

 neighbourhood contains ample food for the young of 

 them all. 



The wattled starling, for instance, discovers 

 where a swarm of migratory locusts have laid their 

 eggs, and they also know when those eggs will hatch. 

 The birds forthwith build hundreds of nests in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and when their eggs have 

 hatched there is an abundance of food for the nestlings 

 and parents in the shape of young locusts. In this 

 way Nature provides food for the young birds, and at 

 the same time seeks to prevent the locusts increasing 

 unduly in numbers. Unfortunately, although these 

 immensely valuable birds are protected by law, their 

 nests are so accessible that Kafirs and others of 

 nondescript breeds collect the fat nestlings in thou- 

 sands for food. I have seen white men and their 

 sons deliberately shoot into flocks of these valu- 

 able allies of ours and kill and wound hundreds 

 of them. 



The territorial habit is determined mainly by the 

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