616 J. H. Bowker. ( 



contrary have been gradually diminishing year by year and 

 is now almost looked upon as a plague of the past. About 

 1840 large flights of the ^^Ciconia alba'.', described in Layards 

 South African Birds made their appearance giving the idea, 

 that their food supply had failed in Central Africa from the 

 move of the locust southwards, and they well foUowed them 

 up, and to the present time 1886 are to be seen in scattered 

 troops subsisting upon the ordinary grasshopper of the 

 country, but hitherto I have failed to find out wether the 

 birds have nested here or not, and the conclusion I have 

 come to is, that they do not, and are with the locust dying 

 out probably to revive again in the interior at some future 

 time and play the game over again. About 1845 they were 

 in large numbers roosting upon the ground, sometimes 

 covering from twenty to tv^o hundred acres of ground and 

 when the spot was examined the foUowing day, numbers 

 of eggs would be found scattered about, but in no instance 

 could I ever hear of their return for the purpose of in- 

 cubation. The cases related in books upon South African 

 Ornithology are not reliable and I believe apply to 

 some other bird of the same family, some of which are 

 not unlike in appearance. There is one peculiarity. I may 

 note that they follow grass fires like many other birds and 

 I have often seen a circle of them round a patch of burning 

 grass, keeping well out of the dense smoke and ever ready 

 to capture any underdone grasshopper which might be 

 attempting to escape the fire. 



There is also a sea-eagle Haliastur vocifer (Layard and 

 Sharpe) which frequents the mouths of rivers and salt water 

 lagoons near the coast and but little notice is taken there 

 of their habits, but from ten to two hundred miles Inland 

 their presence predicts storm or wind and hence it is known 

 to the natives as the wind-bird or windvogel. Keeping at 

 a height in the air from two to three thousand feet and 

 uttering at intervals of one or two minutes a wild prolonged 

 wail which can be heard at a great distance and according 

 to the natives predicts (and I think truly) a change in the 

 weather. 



