68o OX-BIRD OX-PECKER 



in great detail, has given his reasons (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. pp. 291-309 ; 

 and Ornith. Miscell. i. pp. 269-298 ; ii. pp. 1-21) for acknowledging 

 four "subspecies" of A. flammeus, as well as five other species. Of 

 these last, A. tenebricosus is peculiar to Australia, while A. novse- 

 hollandise inhabits also New Guinea, and has a "subspecies," A. 

 castanops, found only in Tasmania ; a third, A. candidus, has a wide 

 range from Fiji and northern Australia through the Philippines 

 and Formosa to China, Burma and India; a fourth, A. capensis, is 

 peculiar to South Africa ; while A. thomensis is said to be confined 

 to the African island of St. Thomas. There is also the extinct A. 

 sauzieri of Mauritius (Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. p. 286), and to these will 

 perhaps have to be added a species from New Britain, described by 

 Count T.- Salvador! as Strix aurantia, though it may prove on further 

 investigation not to be an Alucine Owl at all. 



OX-BIRD, a common name for the DUNLIN, and in connexion 

 therewith Mr. Harting, in the Introduction (p. xvii.) to Eodd's Birds 

 of Cornwall, reasonably refers OXEN-AND-KINE, by which name 

 some apparently small wildfowl were of old times known in the 

 west country (cf. Carew, Survey of Cornwall, fol. 35, and a curious 

 paper printed in the Camden Miscellany^- iv. pp. 10, 26). 



OX-EYE seems once to have been synonymous with OX-BIRD, 

 but is now only known as a local name for the Great TITMOUSE 

 (cf. Sw. Talgoxe = fat ox). 2 



OX-PECKER, a rendering of the French Pique-bceuf, bestowed 

 on a small, dull-coloured bird discovered by Adanson in Senegal, 

 the Buphaga africana of Linnaeus, which has 

 been almost invariably referred to the Family 

 Sturnidx (STARLING), chiefly, it would seem, 

 because it flies in flocks, and settles on the 

 back of cattle in search of the bots or ticks 

 with which they are infested. Though the 

 animals are at first alarmed at the visitation, 

 OXPECKER. they soon get over the fright, regarding, it is 



said, with evident pleasure the way in which 

 the birds creep about them and rid them of the pests. A second 



1 The Editor of this, Mr. W. D. Cooper, suggests that the birds were Ruffs and 

 Reeves, but there is no evidence that those birds were ever to be had in Devon or 

 Cornwall ; however, Mr. C. Swainson (Prov. Names Br. B. p. 195) accepts the 

 suggestion as if it were a fact. Mr. Sclater (List Vert. Anim. Gardens of the 

 Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 246) applies "Ox-bird" to Textor alUrostris or alecto, one of 

 the WEAVER-BIRDS. 



2 A copy of Belon's Portraits d'Oyseaux (1557) in the Public Library of the 

 University of Cambridge (M. 15. 43) has the English names of many of the birds 

 written in an ancient hand. To the figure of Himantopus (STILT) the name 

 Ox-eye is applied. 



