THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 99 



loaded. It will be found expedient, before starting on a trip of any- 

 lengthened duration, to become possessed of the usual reloading 

 implements and the requisite material, filling the empty cases as 

 may be required. To avoid any annoyance when shooting in the 

 Interior, black powder should alone be used, as the nitro-compounds 

 are too much subject to climatic influence. 



Before concluding this subject, some remarks on a few of the 

 numerous enemies which the game birds of South Africa have to 

 contend with may not be out of place. Some give credit to the 

 secretary bird {Serpentarius secretarius) as a snake exterminator. 

 It may possibly content itself, when other food is unobtainable, with 

 a diminutive reptile or snake, as will several of the hawk and eagle 

 tribe, the bateleur or short-tailed eagle {Helotarsus caudatus) being 

 an even more formidable antagonist in this respect. The natives 

 term this bird Bulai-nogha (snake-killer) or Peekeewe. Although 

 opinions differ, those who really have had proper opportunities of 

 judging will say that the secretary bird should itself be exter- 

 minated whenever occasion offers, as it is not only, a most destruc- 

 tive enemy to the young of all feathered game, but also to the 

 young of the smaller antelopes and Hares. Instances of its suscepti- 

 bility to this description of food are too numerous to mention, 

 while others can be adduced in which these gay deceivers will most 

 carefully avoid coming into contact with even small snakes. 



It is to be regretted that the Governments of the Cape Colony, 

 Bechuanaland, and Natal do not put into force a stringent law 

 defining the number of dogs that may be owned by individual 

 natives. Every Kaffir herd throughout the countries mentioned is 

 usually attended by sometimes as many as eight or nine pariahs, 

 and the destruction of feathered game is consequently enormous, 

 the young birds having little chance of maturing. A tax on every 

 dog owned by a Kaffir similar to that imposed upon white men 

 would soon rid the country of the pest, and prevent the birds from 

 becoming extinct by the, wholesale and in-and-out-of-season slaugh- 

 ter that everywhere prevails. 



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