200 
COMMON OXPECKER. 
Buphaga Africana , Auctorum. 
Greyish brown ; rump, breast, and body Beneath, pale ful- 
vous; lateral tail-feathers ferrugineous ; bill orange, the 
. tip red. 
Buphaga Africana, Linn. And . — Le Pic Boeuf., PI. Eid. 293. 
— Le Pique Boeuf., Le VaUl. Ois. d'Af. pi. 97. 
"We have entered so much at large into the peculiar 
structure and habits of the genus Buphaga, in the 
first volume of our Classification of Birds, that little 
need he said, in this place, upon the same subjects. 
This, which is the most common of the two species 
now known, is found both in Southern and "Western 
Africa, where it is seen in small flocks, alighting 
on the backs of cattle (and no doubt on other qua- 
drupeds), where it searches for those parasitic in- 
sects which distress them during summer. There 
can be no doubt, that during a considerable part of 
the year, these birds must feed upon other sub- 
stances, but what these are remains to be discovered. 
Certain it is, however, that their feet are truly 
scansorial, and that they are no more adopted for 
walking upon the ground, like the starlings, with 
whom they have been hitherto associated, than are 
those of Oxyrynchus , Sitta, and numerous other 
scansorial genera. 
