304 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
extends to the base of the throat. After about six months of this 
curious ornamentation the wattles slowly atrophy and the male 
then resumes the normal head-dress as worn permanently by the 
female, and by the young male for the first few years of his life. 
A certain amount of mystery surrounds the nesting habits of 
Wattled Starlings. In South-West Africa they have been found 
nesting in thousands, with each thorn-bush packed with nests, 
and all in a restricted area where locusts were hatching. As the 
latter cover the ground in millions and provide excellent food 
for young birds it seems that the association is by design and not 
mere coincidence, especially as similar independent observations 
have been made in Kenya. 
When the locust hoppers reach the flying stage the swarm is 
followed by flocks of Wattled Starlings, and as the locusts are at- 
tracted by greenery in the way of growing crops on farms, it is 
then that the starlings are much in evidence, and why they are 
known in many localities as “locust-birds.” It has been recorded 
that breeding colonies of Wattled Starlings sometimes suffer 
disaster when the locust swarm, on which they are dependent, 
takes flight before the young birds are reared. In spite of all efforts 
by the parents, masses of young birds then perish through starva- 
tion. 
It seems that locust-control measures, now in force in most parts 
of Africa where there is European settlement, have greatly affected 
the distribution of the Wattled Starling. Formerly it was plentiful 
over large areas (such as Rhodesia) where it is now seldom seen. 
Although the Wattled Starling has a wide distribution—Aden, 
and from Abyssinia through East Africa to the Cape—it is not 
generally a well-known bird. Over large tracts of country it is 
scarce or absent. Dry regions are its favorite abode, and so it is 
most numerous in South-West Africa and northern Kenya, 
though, strangely enough, it has not spread westward through 
the vast semi-arid zone immediately south of the Sahara. 
The dry zone north of Mount Kenya is interesting not only 
for its varied bird-life but for the many mammals which have 
adapted themselves to arid conditions. Most notable in the way of 
antelopes is the Lesser Kudu and the gerenuk, or Giraffe-necked 
