154 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



In the case of another Nightjar's nest that I came 

 across, the eggs were almost hatching, and the bird sat 

 so closely, adopting the same tactics as in the foregoing 

 description, that she would allow me to move her to 

 and fro by means of a bit of dead stick across which 

 she was sitting ; the bird kept perfectly rigid all the 

 time, never showing her eyes save through the narrow 

 chinks behind which she was watching, and might well 

 have been the rotten branch of wood that she imitated 

 to such perfection. The surroundings of this bird were 

 of a more protective nature than those of the Nightjar 

 which is shown in the illustration, inasmuch as when I 

 was trying to find her I looked more than once at what 

 I took to be a dead bit of a branch lying on the ground, 

 and it was not until I caught the reflection of the light 

 in her half-closed eye that the bird itself began to take 

 shape. Strewn on the ground were leaves of the 

 Spanish chestnut and the oak, and on some of the 

 feathers of the bird's wing were markings representing 

 the dead leaves of these two trees, both in shape and in 

 colour. 



Among the forest birds which occasionally showed 

 themselves on the hills around Knysna, were the 

 Hornbills. A party of these odd-looking birds would 

 sometimes come and take up their positions, one by one, 

 on some posts that formed part of a fence running down 

 one of the hillsides. I noticed that they were feeding 

 on some large caterpillars that frequented many of the 

 shrubs growing on these hills. These birds, which 

 were of a kind known as the Crowned Hornbill, and 

 are ungainly birds with large red beaks, would fly down 

 from these posts and endeavour to cling on to the 



