150 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



a favourite resort of the various species of Sun-birds, 

 which would come out of the woods and feed on many 

 of the flowers. The Malachite Sun-birds seemed to be 

 present in every part of the Colony that we visited, 

 but here the place of the Long-tailed Sun-bird was 

 taken by the Scarlet-chested Sun-bird and the Black 

 Sun-bird. Both of these were very handsome little 

 birds, and next to the flower of \hz protea, they seemed 

 to prefer feeding on the nectar obtained from the bloom 

 of one of the mesembryanthemnms. This was a plant 

 with fleshy triangular leaves, spreading itself along 

 the ground, and in places covering a considerable 

 area. The flowers of this plant were sometimes of 

 a light pink, and at others of a pale yellow colour, 

 and these Sun-birds might often be seen standing on 

 them and dipping their long beaks down amongst 

 the petals. Later in the season these flowers pro- 

 duced a small fruit, which goes by the name of the 

 Hottentot fig, this is picked in considerable quantities 

 by the natives and sold to the colonists for the purpose 

 of making jam ; the raw fruit is not very palatable. 

 The reproduction on plate 33, showing the nest of the 

 Cape Wagtail, illustrates a portion of this plant, but in 

 this instance it is trailing down the side of a rock, 

 instead of in its usual position, along the ground. 



Butterflies also were equally fond of settling on these 

 flowers, though they sometimes had to wait their turn 

 until the Sun-birds had finished feeding. We did not 

 find butterflies very plentiful in the Colony ; like the 

 birds, they were few and far between, and a large 

 extent of ground had to be covered if one wished to 

 meet with many different kinds. One species to be 



