STURNID-aE 



BUPHAGA 



21 



together with Bupkaga africana, roosting in reeds in localities 

 where neither wild nor tame animals were found (" Missionary 

 Travels," p. 546). When seated on the back of an animal these 

 Ox-peckers rest on the whole tarsus, with head thrown back and 

 bill pointing upwards at an angle ; if endangered by the sweep of 

 their hosts' tail they flatten themselves still more and allow it to 

 brush lightly over or jump nimbly out of the way. Their food 

 consists almost entirely of ticks taken from the bodies of various 

 animals, donkeys being special favourites. Should they, however, 

 find an animal with a sore back they are apt to peck at and irritate 

 the wounds, perhaps for the sake of the blood, which they drink as 

 it oozes from the raw surfaces, but I have never known the Red- 

 billed Ox-pecker eat out the deep holes that the yellow-billed species 

 sometimes does. The same individual birds frequently attach 

 themselves to particular animals. A donkey at Pinetown in Natal 

 was constantly attended by four of these birds, who, in return for 

 their services in keeping her free from ticks, were in the habit of 

 drinking blood from sores which they kept open for that purpose 

 behind the ears. Their nests also were lined entirely with hairs 

 pulled from the donkey's coat ; in collecting these the birds showed 

 a certain amount of ingenuity, the individual hairs as they were 

 pulled out being placed end to end on the donkey's back until 

 neat bundles were accumulated, as large as they could con- 

 veniently carry ; these were then carried to their nests under 

 the roof of a house. In unsettled districts these birds build 

 in the holes of trees, but in more civilised parts usually under 

 the roofs of houses. The nest is an untidy structure of straw and 

 grass lined with the hair of various animals. The eggs, three to 

 five in number, are of a uniform pale bluish-white colour. They 

 average 1-12 x 0-85. 







** 



Subfamily II. 



Bill variable, the culmen curved or straight to the tip, which is 

 rather obtuse and flattened ; nostrils basal, open, in a membranous 

 groove. Wings moderate. Tail very variable. Tarsi rather long, 

 strong, and scutellated anteriorly; the toes long and strong, the 

 claws strong and sharp, that of the hind toe stronger than that of 

 the middle toe. 



p*--.' 



