CHAPTER II. 

 FRIENDS OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 



LOCUST BIRDS. 



FIRST on the list of useful birds inhabiting South Africa 

 corne the five Locust Birds, belonging to three widely 

 divergent ornithological groups. 



The true Locust Bird, or Klein Springhaan Vogel as 

 the Boers call it, is the celebrated Wattled Starling 

 (Creatophora carunculata) . These birds ibelong to the 

 Starling family (Sturnidce), and follow the swarms of 

 locusts in flocks, nesting in the vicinity of locust 

 hatcheries and feeding themselves and their young on 

 the young locusts, or voetgangers (walkers), as the wing- 

 less immature insects are called. 



During the month of December, 1895, a flock of these 

 birds visited the Albany Division, Cape Colony, and 

 nested close to the Chumie River, near Koonap. 



There were a few single nests these in each case 

 measured about 2 feet by 1 foot in size but for the 

 most part the nests were grouped together in threes and 

 fours in single trees. Some small thorn-trees were liter- 

 ally enveloped in three or four nests. There were about 

 fifty or sixty nests within a radius of almost as many 

 yards ; within this space there was hardly a tree that 

 had not at least one nest. Beyond the clump selected 

 by the birds as a nesting site there were no isolated nests, 



