PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA (SOUTH) 97 
and that while chasing their prey! The most striking of all is the 
Carmine Bee-eater whose beauty and elegance leave one almost 
spellbound. I often watched them in Portuguese East Africa 
attending grazing cattle—at times perching on their backs. They 
have learned that cattle in long grass disturb grasshoppers that 
would otherwise be difficult to catch. A great proportion of these 
insects are of the flying kind and when disturbed travel ten yards 
or so and then flop down again, their protective coloring then 
rendering them invisible. It is during this short flight that the 
bee-eater takes off from the back of an ox or some adjacent 
branch, and swooping through the air, snaps up the grasshopper 
before it has time to drop into its grassy retreat. 
On one occasion there was a grass fire raging and I saw a large 
assembly of Carmine Bee-eaters perched on bushes and other 
points of vantage near the advancing flames. The smoke and 
crackling of burning vegetation was a signal to them that a feast 
was at hand, and as the heat drove myriads of insects from their 
normally secure hiding-places, the bee-eaters swooped on them 
unmercifully. 
I left Lourenco Marques with a large and varied collection of 
birds and snakes; many of the former were new to aviculture, 
including White-fronted Bee-eaters, Pygmy Kingfishers. White- 
shouldered Robin-chats, Southern Helmet Shrikes, Pygmy Geese, 
and Yellow-wattled Plovers, and the rest were exceedingly rare in 
collections. 
