20S A/ore Notes on the Brom - Vogel.


MORE NOTES ON THE BROM-VOGEL.


Bucorax cafer.


By Miss Alice Hutchinson.


I was much interested in reading Mr. Sclater’s article in

the February magazine on this somewhat uncanny-looking bird

of S. Africa, for to me he is quite an old friend.


He is not at all timid in his wild state, and I have often

seen couples of them walking about on the veldt, looking for tit

bits in the way of frogs, beetles, locusts, &c., and not troubling

to fly off as we passed on horseback.


A pair built every year in the big gum trees not far from

our house, though the nest was never visible ; the trees were

large and of a great height, and as the limbs were often torn off

by the wind, or smashed by lightning, most likely they found

many convenient hollows for their nest, quite invisible to human

beings below.


Their curious booming note has earned for them, in Natal,

the name of Doom-doom, from the Kafir word dmna, meaning

thunder, and the natives have a great superstition that if a Doom-

doom is wantonly destroyed, a most terrible thunderstorm will

come and work havoc among their crops and cattle ; so, thanks to

this superstition, this large and interesting bird is left in peace.


He seems to be quite harmless, and is certainly not a

beauty, so there is no reason why he should be molested, and we

hope that the Kafirs will always keep up their superstition about

him, and not take a fancy to any part of his person with which to

adorn themselves. The pretty little cock ‘ isakabula ’ (Whydah

bird) suffers from the vanity of the natives, for he is persecuted

for his beautiful bunch of tail-feathers, which are considered

a very high-class adornment as a head-dress on festive occasions.


I think the Colonists have a secret affection for the Brom-

Vogel, and rather like to hear them about among their trees, for

he does not seem to fall a victim to the too ready gun of most

of them, who, worse luck, learn to shoot from their childhood,

and evidently find a great pleasure (save the mark) in destroying

God’s creatures.



