CHAPTER II 



FEIENDS OF THE AGEICULTUEIST 



LOCUST BIRDS 



First on the list of useful birds inhabiting South Africa 

 come the five species of Locust Birds belonging to .three 

 widely divergent ornithological groups. They are protected 

 by law in the Transvaal. 



The true Locust Bird, or Klein Springhaan Vogel, is the 

 celebrated Wattled Starling (Creatophora carunculata). 

 These birds belong to the Starling family (Sturnidce), and 

 follow the swarms of locusts in nocks, nesting in the vicinity 

 of locust hatcheries and feeding themselves and their young 

 on the young locusts, or voetgangers (walkers), as the wing- 

 less immature insects are called. 



During the month of December, 1895, a flock of these birds 

 visited the Albany Division, Cape Province, and nested close 

 to the Chuinie River, near Koonap, Mr. Ivy informed me. 



There were a few single nests — these in each case measured 

 about -2 feet by 1 foot in size— but for the most part the 

 nests were grouped together in threes and fours in single 

 trees. Some small thorn-trees were literally enveloped in 

 three or four nests. There were about fifty or sixty nests 

 within a radius of almost as many yards ; within this space 

 there was hardly a tree that had not at least one nest. 

 Beyond the clump selected by the birds as a nesting site 

 there were no isolated nests, although the trees extended all 

 round. All the nests examined — about twenty — had two 

 apertures, both on the same side. On January 20, 1906, 



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