252 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



Another of our feathered eccentricities, the butcher- 

 bird, called by the colonists Jack Hanger, likes to eat 

 his game high ; and you often come across mimosa- 

 bushes which, stuck all over with small birds, beetles, 

 locusts, etc., impaled on the long, stiff thorns, form: his 

 well-stocked larder. 



In such a land of snakes as South Africa it is 

 necessary for the birds to resort to many clever and 

 thoughtful devices for the protection of eggs and 

 young ; and some of the "homes without hands" are 

 most ingeniously planned and exquisitely constructed. 



The golden oriole hangs her graceful nest on the very 

 furthest end of a long bough — over water, if possible, 

 for extra safety, — and always gives the preference to 

 the drooping branches of the willow. The nest is 

 shaped just like a Florence flask with the end curved 

 over ; and it is next to impossible for a snake to pene- 

 trate into its interior. 



Even prettier and more wonderfully made is the 

 nest of the kapok bird, a little creature resembling a 

 tom-tit. The material used in the construction of this 

 small domicile is a kind of wild cotton, well named by 

 the Boers kapok (snow). The nest, which is very com- 

 pact, and looks as if it were made of soft, white felt, is 

 of much the same shape as the oriole's brown flask; 

 but near the outlet it is dented in, forming a kind of 

 second or exterior nest, in which the little paterfamilias 

 mounts guard over his household gods, effectually 

 closing the aperture by the pressure of his back against 

 the curving end of the tube above him. The white 



