464 
GOLDEN CUCKOO. — JACKALS. 
18 Nov. 
now the old man's wrinkles had quite disappeared ; his body was 
smooth and ridiculously plump ; his skin now seemed to have a flow 
of blood beneath it, and his sleek, well-anointed limbs, seemed to 
have grown larger. I found that I had been mistaken, at least ten 
years, in his age ; and when we parted, he was but a middle-aged 
man. 
At this station I added several new birds to my collection *, 
and amongst them a cuckoo of exceedingly beautiful plumage, with 
a glossy metallic lustre of green and gold ; a bee-eater, very much 
like the European species ; and a handsome oriole, which weaves a 
globular nest of grass, and attaches it between two reeds, overhang- 
ing the water. Besides these birds, I saw a variety of others with 
which I was already acquainted, t 
Sometimes at night the jackals came within a little distance, 
and repeated at short intervals a loud yelping noise, which our dogs 
as often answered by a sharp barking, though not in so angry a tone 
as had been observable, whenever a more formidable animal ap- 
proached us. The Hottentots say the jackal is a fool, because 
he never goes out by night to steal, without betraying himself by 
his own barking. After amusing us in this manner for an hour or 
two, they went away, without making any attempt to come nearer, 
or without being pursued by the dogs, who contented themselves 
with answering bark for bark. This animal, as I judged from its 
voice, was the Canis mesomelas. 
Very few insects met my eye ; two nondescript species were 
caught here %, one a handsome green beetle ( Cetonia Bachapinica ), 
* Cuculus auratus. Lin. Syst. Nat. — Le Coucou Didric. Le Vaill. Ois. d'Afr. 
pi. 210 et 211. 
Turdus UEspionneur. Ois. d'Afr. pi. 103. 
Muscicapa affinis Le Mignard. Ois. d'Afr. pi. 1 54. 
Oriolus a7-U7idinarius, B. — Mas. — Citrinus. Facies atra. Alse fuscae, remigibus 
et tegminibus flavo mai-ginatis. Dorsum et Cauda fusco-virescentia. Uropygium 
flavum. Nidus globosus, ex graminum foliis contextus, inter arundinum culmos 
suspensus. 
f Upupa purpurea, B. was met with at this place. 
\ Cetonia Bachapinica, B. — Fulva. Thorax rufescente (aliquando asruginoso-) fuscus, 
fulvo marginatus. Caput lineis duabus albis striatum. Corpus subtus album, 
lineis transversis rufis. LongaS — 11 lineas. 
