12 FRIENDS OF THE AGRICULTURIST 



None of the local farmers could remember having seen 

 these birds in the breeding season there before, although 

 during the winter months the Wattled Starling may be 

 found in small numbers throughout the Eastern Districts, 

 flying in company with the ordinary Spreeuw {Spreo bicolor). 



The Wattled Starling is of a pale drab colour, with the 

 wing and tail feathers black. The head of the male is 

 adorned with a wattle or two on the crown, and a lappet 

 depending from the throat. They lay four or five eggs 

 of a bluish-white colour, sometimes, though rarely, speckled 

 with black. 



The next two species which are also known by the ver- 

 nacular name of Small Locust Bird, are the two Pratincoles 

 {Glareola jpratincola and G. melanoptera). 



They are brown in coloration, with a sandy-buff throat, 

 margined by a black ring, and white beUy. The axiUaries 

 and under-wing coverts are chestnut in pratincola, whereas 

 these regions in melanoptera are black. Length, lOf inches. 



The Black-winged species, the commoner and better 

 known bird, is a migrant from Western Siberia and South- 

 west Eussia, where it breeds, arriving in South Africa 

 during September to November, and leaving again about 

 the end of March. 



These birds have very long wings, and consequently 

 excellent powers of flight. To see a flock at work on a locust- 

 swarm is one of the most interesting of sights. In January, 

 1906, at Brandfort, Orange Free State, a large flock of 

 these birds were busy making a morning meal off a swarm 

 of locusts. The sun had not yet warmed the insects up to 

 a proper degree of activity, and the birds had in consequence 

 a fairly easy time of it. Flying in a crescent-shaped flock, 

 they would bear down on the locusts and sweep over them 

 with the effect of putting them on the wing. As soon as 



