BUPHAGA ERYTHRORHYNCHA 29 



straight away. My friend, Mr. T. L. Ayres, told me he used 

 to tie shp-knots in the tails of the horses and found it a very 

 effective v^ay of catching these birds. A young caged bird he 

 had was very tame, always flying towards anyone who came 

 near, and chattered most loudly if not taken notice of. 



Starke writes : " The Ked-billed is the commonest ' Tick 

 Bird ' on the coast of Natal and East Africa, its place further 

 inland being taken to a large extent by its congener, Buphaga 

 africana. In the lower parts of Natal it is resident, aiad in 

 pastoral districts is nearly always to be seen in small flocks, 

 either seated on the backs of oxen or horses, climbing, Wood- 

 pecker-like, over their sides, or flying round them with harsh 

 cries resembling those of the European Missel Thrush. Occa- 

 sionally they perch on trees, seldom or never on the ground. 

 Livingstone, however, states that he met with the species 

 together with Biipliaga africana, roosting in reeds in localities 

 where neither wild nor tame animals were found (' Missionary 

 Travels,' p. 546). When seated on the back of an animal 

 these Ox-peckers rest on the whole tarsus, with head 

 thrown back and bill pointing upwards at an angle ; if 

 endangered by the sweep of their host's tail they flatten them- 

 selves still more and allow it to brush lightly over, or jump 

 nimbly out of the way. Their food consists almost entirel}' of 

 ticks taken from the bodies of various animals, donkeys being 

 special favourites. Should they, however, And an animal 

 with a sore back they are apt to peck at and irritate the 

 wounds, perhaps for the sake of the blood, which they drink 

 as it oozes from the raw surfaces, but I have never known the 

 Eed-billed Ox-pecker eat out the deep holes that the yellow- 

 billed species sometimes does. The same individual birds 

 frequently attach themselves to particular animals. A donkey 

 at Pinetown in Natal, was constantly attended by four of 

 these birds, who, in return for their services in keeping her 



