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THE BUFFALO-BIRD. 301 
attends also upon the hippopotamus. It is npt necessary to believe, 
however, that his cries are intended to warn either animal. The 
probability is that they are nothing more than an expression of his 
own alarm at the approach of a stranger. 
Dr. Livingstone says of the Buphaga Africana (the "kala" of the 
Bechuanas), that he cannot be said to depend entirely on the insects he 
finds on the rhinoceros, the hard hairless skin of which is a sufficient 
protection against all except a few spotted ticks. Yet he seems to have 
much the same kind of attachment to the pachyderm that the dog 
bears to man ; and while the buffalo is alarmed by the sudden uprise 
of his sentinel, the quick-eared rhinoceros is warned by his associate's 
cry. The rhinoceros feeds by night, and his sentinel is frequently 
heard in the morning uttering his well-known call as he searches for his 
bulky companion. Livingstone goes on to say of the buffalo-bird, or 
Textor erythrorhynchus, that he acts the part of guardian spirit to the 
buffalo. When the animal is feeding quietly, he may be seen hopping 
on the ground and picking up food, or sitting on the buffalo's back 
and freeing it from the insects that infest his skin. When danger 
approaches, the bird, having a much more acute sight than the buffalo, 
is soon alarmed, and flies off; whereupon the buffalo immediately 
raises his head to ascertain the cause of his guardian's sudden retreat. 
Livingstone's authority is necessarily of great weight ; but we remain 
of opinion that the habits of these birds are not connected with any 
attachment to the animals they accompany, purely, as it seems to us, 
for the sake of the insects that burrow in their skin. 
LIVINGSTONE AND THE BIRDS. 
Our mention of Livingstone reminds us of another of his delightful 
sketches of bird-life in the Zambesi valley. Floating along under the 
shady trees that overhang the broad waters of the river, he often saw 
the pretty turtle-doves, so famed in song and story, sitting peacefully 
on their nests; or an ibis perched solitarily on the end of a stump; 
while the piping of the fish-hawk resounded far and wide. Stepping 
on shore, he was followed by the Charadrius caruncula, a kind of 
plover, — "a plaguy sort of public-spirited individual," which flew over- 
