PESive-+— 
DILOPHUS CARUNCULATUS. 421 
The colour of the bill distinguishes this species from B. africana. 
Fig. Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. taf. ix. 
402. DitopHus caruncuLatus, Gmel. Wattled Starline. 
This well-known bird is found over the greater part of the African 
continent; in South Africa it frequents the same country as the 
Common Spreo, with which it is often found mingled; though it 
not unfrequently flies in large flocks composed wholly of individuals 
of its own species. 
Specimens with developed wattles are very scarce, and but one 
that we have ever seen had these appendages as enlarged as those 
figured by Le Vaillant (J. c.); this specimen is in the Grahams- 
town Museum. Perhaps in the country where it breeds it may 
acquire such during the nesting season. Mr. Schwartz, of Zoetendals 
Vley, informs us that he once found this species breeding in his 
neighbourhood. A large company formed their nests in a dense 
bush, reared their young, and departed. He never saw them nest at 
any other time. Mr. J. H. M. Weale found them breeding near 
Bedford in 1869, Dr. Exton in Mozelikatze’s country. The truth 
is, it follows the swarms of locusts and seems to know when the 
young ones will be developed. They breed in companies. We found 
them in September, 1869, at the Berg River; their nests filled many 
small bushes; they were cup-shaped, but built close together, and 
added to from time to time till they became almost a dense mass 
which filled the bush. The eggs, four or five in number, were of 
the very faintest blue, some of them minutely spotted with black. 
Mr. T. C. Rickard writes :—‘‘ An immense flock arrived at Hast 
London ; in a few days they broke up into smaller flocks and asso- 
ciated with A. morio. They were feeding on the locusts, which they 
took on the wing like a Fly-catcher, flying up a short distance and 
returning to the same nesting-place. The ground beneath the 
bushes on which they rested was strewn with the legs and wings of 
the insects.” 
Our observant correspondent, Mrs. Barber, makes the following 
remarks :—“ Some years ago, when large flights of locusts laid then 
eggs in the valleys of the ‘ Konappe’ and ‘ Chaka’ Rivers, they were 
followed as usual by the small locust birds. It was spring-time, and 
these birds filled the thorn trees (Acacia horrida) with their nests ; 
and some of the trees were so over-burdened with nests, which were 
