54 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



characteristics (some say it is allied to the cranes), 

 the " Secretary " still stands proudly apart from its 

 fellows, and is classed in a family of its own — the 

 Serpentariidce. 



Among peculiar and odd forms of bird life familiar 

 in South Africa may be mentioned the hone3^-guides, 

 weaver-birds, hornbills, rollers, jacanas, shrikes (the 

 butcher-birds of the British school-boy), and others, 

 very many of which display in countless forms habits 

 that will afford inexhaustible pleasure to the true 

 lover of natural history. 



Some birds in Africa have acquired fame and 

 interest as the constant attendants and friends of 

 large animals. Thus the buffalo is constantly 

 attended by a kind of starling, the Bii'phaga africana, 

 or its near relation, the Bih^pliaga erythorhyncha, 

 which rid the great beast of ticks and other insects ; 

 and by sharp cries and restless movements warn 

 their big friends of danger when the hunter ap- 

 proaches. The same bird, the Bii'pliaga, similarly 

 attends the rhinoceros, and undoubtedly is often the 

 means of saving that huge but poor-sighted quad- 

 ruped from death or danger. Another bird attend- 

 ant on the buffalo is one of the finches, the buffalo 

 weaver-bird {Textor erythorhynchus), a gregarious 

 species which nests in colonies in a single tree. 

 Another, Smith's helmet-shrike (Frionops talacoma) 

 has a penchant for Burchell's zebra, and, so the 



