270 



ON SAFARI 



in the excellent Journal of the South African Ornitho- 

 logists Union, Vol. Ill, plate i (June 1907), where the 

 following description of the phenomenon is given 

 by Messrs. A. K. Haagner, F.Z.S, and R. H. Ivy — 



"The extremity of the beak in the nestling is 

 furnished with a pair of hooks which are hard, strong, 

 and very sharp. These peculiar appendages, which 

 remind one of the reptile -like toothed birds of Jurassic 

 iind Cretaceous ages, such as Archwopteryx macrura 



HEAD OF NESTLING Indicator variegatus (scALY-THTtOATED honet-guide) 



SHOWING THE " FORCEPS " ON MANDIBLES. 



from the Middle Oolites, are very curious so far as bird- 

 anatomy is concerned, and one is led to wonder at the 

 reason of their presence. We can only conjecture that 

 they are of use to the nestling when ejecting the young 

 of the rightful owner of the nest ; as it would, by means 

 of these hooks, secure a perfectly firm hold of the bird it 

 wanted to throw out." 



The article proceeds to explain that the pirated nests 

 were invariably placed in holes of trees (such as those 

 of barbets, woodpeckers, etc.), where the usual method 

 •employed by the young British cuckoo of working itself 

 under its victim, and so ejecting it, would not avail : 

 whereas these tooth-like appendages would serve the 



