406 Messrs. R. B. & J. D. S. Woodward's Journeys ' 



Red-winged Starling {Amydrus morio) is a large bird, strong 

 on the wing, and generally flies high ; it frequents the 

 neighbourhood of rocks and krauzes, in the holes of which it 

 builds. These Starlings are very sociable and even during 

 the breeding-season do not separate, but lay their blue 

 speckled eggs in convenient crevices of the same clifl". They 

 are very noisy, and, although unable to sing, keep up a 

 constant chattering when they alight. We have taken tlie 

 young birds from the nest and were surprised to notice how 

 different their plumage was from that of the old birds, being 

 speckled like that of the English StarHng. They seem to 

 be very fond of the rock-plum, which grows plentifully near 

 their nesting-places. 



Owls are common here, as in most of the thick bushes. 

 Although most people seem to have a sort of superstitious 

 dislike to the cry of the owl, its loud hooting as it breaks the 

 silence of the night is often listened to with pleasure. Out 

 here there are no old ruins with ivy-clad walls, the favourite 

 haunts of these birds in the old country, but decayed old 

 trees in the deep recesses of the forest are often inhabited 

 by a pair, who there deposit their round, white, rough-shelled 

 eggs (which are everywhere the same, only varying in size), 

 and rear undisturbed their venerable-looking oti'spring. We 

 have kept the handsome Bubo capensis tame, reared from 

 a nestling; when fully grown it hoots as loud as its wild 

 relations. Bubo maculosus is also a fine bird and its soft 

 " hoo-hoo '' breaks the stillness of the moonlight nights. We 

 obtained its eggs, which are four in number, taken out of a 

 hole in a bank. A friend of ours told us that these Owls 

 made considerable havoc amongst his pigeons, entering the 

 dove-cot at night and extracting the birds. We hardly 

 believed this, but one night a tame owl of ours escaped from 

 its cage, and entering a barn tore off the heads of two of our 

 doves ! This, however, is quite an exception to the general 

 rule, and owls should be classed amongst the most useful of 

 vermin-destroyers. 



Another common species is the Swamp Owl [Asio capensis) . 

 This is exclusively a grass bird and keeps to the open veldt. 



