200 



COMMON OXPECKER. 



Bupliaga Africana, AUCTORUM. 



Greyish brown ; rump, breast, and body beneath, pale ful- 

 TOUS; lateral tail-feathers ferrugineous ; bill orange, the 

 tip red. 



Buphaga Africana, Linn. And. Le Pic Boeuf., PL Enl. 293. 

 Le Pique Boeuf., Le Vaitt. Ois. (TAf. pi. 97. 



WE have entered so much at large into the peculiar 

 structure and habits of the genus Buphaga^ in the 

 first volume of our Classification of Birds, that little 

 need he said, in this place, upon the same subjects. 

 This, which is the most common of the two species 

 now known, is found both in Southern and Western 

 Africa, where it is seen in small flocks, alighting 

 on the backs of cattle (and no doubt on other qua- 

 drupeds), where it searches for those parasitic in- 

 sects which distress them during summer. There 

 can be no doubt, that during a considerable part of 

 the year, these birds must feed upon other sub- 

 stances, but what these are remains to be discovered. 

 Certain it is, however, that their feet are truly 

 scansorial, and that they are no more adopted for 

 walking upon the ground, like the starlings, with 

 whom they have been hitherto associated, than are 

 those of Qxyrynchus, Sitta, and numerous other 

 scansorial genera. 



