BIRDS. 333 



ness of the curious instinctive habits of the honey-guide, 

 yet Le Vaillant doubts if that traveller ever sav^r the bird at 

 all. He says that the account is merely a repetition of a 

 fable that is known and believed by credulous people at the 

 Cape, and that it is false to suppose that the bird seeks to 

 draw man after it for the purpose of sharing the plundered 

 sweets ; the fact being that the bird calls not the man, but 

 that the man knows by attending to the natural cry of the 

 bird in search of food, that he will be sure ere long to find 

 the stores of the bee. According to Bruce, the moroc, for 

 so this singular species is sometimes named, occurs in 

 Abyssinia ; but he also throws discredit on Sparrman's 

 relation. We have seen, in the preceding chapter, that 

 Lichtenstein doubted the truth of Le Vaillant's account of 

 the camelopard ; we now find Le Vaillant himself equally 

 skeptical of the accuracy of the Swedish traveller, and 

 joined therein by Bruce, whose own statements were at 

 one period scarcely credited at all. However, to conclude 

 a subject which has already too long detained us, we shall 

 ■ observe that Mr. Barrow, a most careful and accurate in- 

 quirer, though not a professed zoologist, confirms Dr. 

 Sparrman's account, as follows : — " Every one in that 

 country (the interior of the southern extremity of Africa) is 

 too well acquainted with the moroc to have any doubts as 

 to the certainty either respecting the bird or its information 

 of the repositories of the bees." 



The sagacious and imitative family of the parrots (Psit- 

 tacidfje) is the next to demand a brief record. Though one of 

 the most numerous groups of the feathered creation, it is by 

 no means abundant in species, when considered merely in 

 reference to its African relations. The gorgeous maccaws 

 are peculiar to South America, the cockatoos to New-Hol- 

 land and the Eastern Islands, the lories to the East Indies 

 and the Moluccas ; and the greater proportion of parrots 

 and parakeets, commonly so called, are more truly charac- 

 teristic of the tropical regions of other countries than of 

 Africa. Yet here also this noisy and loquacious race are 

 not unknown, although the far-spread forests are its chosen 

 dwelling-places rather than the barren sands. Africa, how- 

 ever, has also her shady bowers as well as thirsty Saharas ; 



" For He, at whose command the parched rock 

 Was smitten, and poured forth a quenching stream, 



