58 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



the borers and grubs out of the old wood of the poles. 

 We possess about a dozen different kinds of woodpeckers 

 in south Africa. 



The bright plumaged Rollers are always most con- 

 spicuous birds in the African bush. They are bold and 

 confiding, and great consumers of locusts, grasshoppers, 

 caterpillars, and other insects. The handsomest is the 

 Lilac-Breasted Roller, with its bright blue wing covers, 

 and gyrating flight. The European Roller is a summer 

 migrant to south Africa, and is during that season ex- 

 tremely numerous in the eastern Transvaal, occasionally 

 nesting there. 



THE GROUND HORNBILL. These big birds, with their 

 black and white plumage, scarlet wattles, and huge bills, 

 are nearly always met with sooner or later by the traveller, 

 feeding in open patches in the forest, in flocks of from 

 six to about twenty, during the cool hours of the day. 

 Their deep and melodious call of " hoo hoo, hoo, hoo 

 hoo, hoo," always heard when they are in the vicinity, 

 is usually most frequent in the very early morning.* 

 When disturbed they go away with a ponderous flight, 

 often for a considerable distance, though they never 

 rise far from the ground. At the end of their flight 

 they sometimes perch in trees. They will eat 

 almost anything : snakes, tortoises, small mammals, 

 nestling birds, eggs, grubs and caterpillars are all 

 delicacies. 



Although not timid birds they are extremely wary. 

 In captivity they become marvellously tame and show 

 extraordinary intelligence, understanding very much as 

 a dog does, what is said to them. I knew a tame one 

 which would lie down shamming dead, jump up again 



* The female seems to say, " Do take care, dp take care ; " and 

 the male answers at once, an octave lower, " All-right-Mary." 



