Locust Birds in the Transvaal. 71 



peculiar fashion. Some Swallows flying forwards and back- 

 wards over them were taking the young locusts when they were 

 in mid-air. It was there also, a few days later, that I saw 

 about half a dozen Swifts swooping close over a swarm of very 

 young voetgangers and catching them as they hopped up. 



The Quail. (^Cotumix capensis.) 



A small bird, but a great locust-eater, is the South African 

 Quail. It appears, like most migrating birds, after the first 

 rains have fallen, although I have often noticed a brace or so 

 in the winter months where lots of food were to be found, 

 such as old cattle-kraals or Kaffir corn- and mealie-fiolds, 

 feeding on the little black seeds of weeds growing in such 

 places. 



The Quail breeds in South Africa in wheat- and oat-fields. 

 Numbers of eggs and young are destroyed by the reapers. 

 In nearly every Dutch farmhouse strings of eggs can be 

 seen hanging on the walls ; most of these are Quail-eggs — in 

 the Orange River Colony more so than in the Transvaal ; in 

 the latter Colony more eggs of the smaller Finches will be 

 found. I have seen bags of fifty or more brace of Quail 

 by one sportsman in a day. 



Considering the great help this small bird gives to the 

 farmer in devouring all kinds of insects, and especially 

 locust-voetgangers ^, I quote an article which appeared in the 

 'Cape Agricultural Journal' of 1893 (p. 227), under the 

 heading of " Quails and Locusts." The French journal 

 called the ' Eleveur ' (that is, " Breeder ") publishes an article 

 on the traffic in Quails, which the writer criticises from an 

 entirely new point of view. The correspondent attributes 

 the enormous increase of locusts, from wdiich the Algerian 

 Colonists have so fearfully suffered last year, to the cupidity 

 and greed of gain of a few dealers in poultry. The writer 

 goes on to say how most game-birds are shot at recklessly, 

 and concludes with the following statistical remarks: — "A 



* [See the review of the U. S. Department of Agriculture Pamphlet 

 on the Quails, vol. ii. p. 138. — Edd.] 



