CHAPTER V 



NOTABLE SOUTH AFKICAN BIRDS 



Richness of the avi-fanna — Birds of -pvej — Game birds — The 

 Secretary Bird — Birds devoted to animals— Migratory 

 birds — Familiar European friends — Rainy season— Breed- 

 ing plumage — Swallows — Rollers — Bee-eaters — Sun-birds 

 — Wheatear — Wagtails, Pipits, Thrushes, Warblers, and 

 Chats — " Jan Fredrik " — Babblers — Orioles — Flycatchers 

 and Larks — Shrikes — Crows — Starlings — Weaver Birds 

 and Finches — Bullfinches — Touracos — Hornbills — Parrots 

 — Woodpeckers— Cuckoos — Trogons and Pigeons — Storks, 

 Cranes, and water-fowl. 



Rich as South Africa has proved itself in the nobler 

 forms of animal life — those countless beasts of chase 

 now, alas ! vanishing so rapidly— its great host of 

 birds forms a kingdom in its way quite as interest- 

 ing, and, apparently, quite inexhaustible. Let the 

 traveller go where he will in the vast veldt of 

 Southern Africa — over mountain, through bush, or 

 across plain — he will, if he has any eye at all for 

 the charms of nature, see around him at different 

 seasons, an infinite variety of bird-life with which to 

 interest and amuse his leisure hours. 



It is true that Africa cannot vie with England in 

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