12 FRIENDS OF THE AGRICULTURIST 



Africa. The confiding little Quickstertje is too well 

 known to need any description whatever. 



It is a familiar figure in the neighbourhood of any 

 farmhouse and along watercourses, where it usually nests 

 under a tuft of grass on the edge of the bank or on a 

 ledge in the bank itself. We have also found the nest 

 situated on willow stumps and in creepers growing on 

 the side of a house. It builds a cup-shaped nest of grass, 

 lined with twine, wool, &c. ; it is often exteriorly of an 

 untidy appearance, but inside neat and cosy. The Cape 

 Wagtail lays three eggs of a buffish tinge, thickly marked 

 with pale brown. When incubated the mottlings often 

 become obscure, giving the egg a general brownish tinge. 



Bay's Yellow Wagtail (M. campestris} is a rare 

 migrant from Europe, breeding in the British Islands 

 and Southern Russia. We saw a single specimen on 

 the Jokeskei River, north of Johannesburg, in December, 

 1905. 



The Blue-headed Wagtail (M. flava] is olive-yellow 

 above and bright yellow below, with a blue-grey head. It 

 is also a migrant from Europe and Asia, ranging as far 

 south as Natal, Transvaal and Damaraland. 



The Black-headed Wagtail (M. melanocepliala) is 

 another European bird, but has only been once recorded 

 from South Africa by Ayres, from the Transvaal. 



The Wagtails are true friends of the farmer, being 

 almost exclusively insect feeders, accounting for large 

 numbers of plant-bugs and lice, mosquitoes, &c. 



SUGAR-BIRDS. 



The Sugar-birds (Promeropidce) , called Zuiker-vogels by 

 the Boers a name shared by the Sunbirds are also real 



