62 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



Some of the perching birds make a living by feeding on the 

 insects, ticks and the like, which infest many of the larger 

 Mammals. Such are the Ox- Peckers of the African continent, a 

 well-known Natal species being the African Ox- Pecker (Buphaga 

 Africand] (fig. 351). These birds are closely related to the 

 starlings, and their feet are provided with strong curved claws, 



Fig. 351. African Ox-Pecker (Buphaga Africana) 



by means of which, and with the help of their tails, they are 

 able to climb about on the bodies of oxen, buffaloes, and other 

 large animals. Their strong straight beaks deal most effectively 

 with the creatures preyed upon, and the lower mandible is used 

 as- a lever for extracting bot-fly larvae from the skin. J. G. Millais 

 (in A Breath from the Veldt] gives a vivid account of the habits 

 of this bird, from which the following is quoted: "It is most 

 interesting to notice the way in which a party of these birds 

 will move about on the body of a horse or ox, searching every 

 part of his skin as they run or hop over it in the most lively 

 fashion. . . . It is quite immaterial to them how or in what 

 direction they move. They are continually on the hop, and seem 

 almost capable of hanging on by the proverbial eyelids. . . . Your 

 oxen are no sooner outspanned than a party of these interesting- 

 birds spy them out, and come and sit on the neighbouring trees 

 till the beasts have been watered and have settled down to steady 

 grazing. Then they rise in the air, and after flying in a circle 

 once or twice over some likely-looking ox, they descend and settle 

 all in a row along its backbone, where they sit stolidly for a 



