BUPHACtA AFRICANA 27 



reconnoitering- you on your approach ; so tame are they that 

 the one in question was killed by one of our natives, with 

 a stick, from a horse's back. This species is continually with 

 the rhinoceros, and when the animal is disturbed, the birds 

 hover over it as it runs, keeping up a continual twitter." Mr. 

 Guy Marshall writes : " Fairly common m Mashonaland, 

 though I have seen l)ut few round Salisbury. In South 

 Africa the species is known to the English colonists as 

 the "Tick-bird" and "Rhinoceros-bird," by the Dutch as 

 the " Khinaster Vogel," and by the Matabeles as the 

 "Umblauda." 



The species has not been recorded from the Zaujbesi nor 

 from Central British xlfrica, but specimens have been collected 

 at Ulundi (Trotha), north-east of Lake Tanganyika ; Bukoba 

 (Stuhlmann) ; Kibiro, Lado, Makraka and Buesa (Emin) ; 

 Port Rek, Lake Tana, Galabat, Mareb and Taka (Heuglin). 



The late Sir Samuel Baker, in his " Albert Nyanza, Great 

 Basin of the Nile," i., p. 107, writes : " It is a perfect pest 

 to the animals, and positively eats them into holes. The 

 original object of the bird in settling upon the animal is to 

 search for vermin ; but it is not contented with the mere 

 insects, and industriously pecks holes in all parts of the 

 animal, more especially on the back. I was obliged to hire 

 little boys to watch the donkeys, and to drive off the plagues ; 

 but so determined and bold were these birds, that I have 

 constantly seen them run under the body of the donkey, 

 clinging to the belly with their feet, and thus retreating to 

 the opposite side of the animals when cliased by the 

 watch-boys. In a few days my animals were full of 

 wounds, excepting the horses, whose long tails were effectual 

 whisks." 



