274 
ON SAFAEI 
assert. But whether these shrikes are actuated by reason 
or instinct, or whatever their precise motive may be, at 
least to the stalker the result is the same—a chattering 
crew of shrikes and the clatter of galloping hoofs. 
The tick-birds or oxpeckers (. Buphagince ) must also 
be included in the category of detrimentals. My own 
short experience would not have enabled me so to classify 
them, since I cannot remember to have lost a single shot 
through their agency. On one occasion I passed quite 
close to a rhino, and in full view, when, though the 
SABLE ANTELOPE ALARMED BY BIRD-WARNING. 
great pachyderm was attended by at least a score of 
feathered parasites creeping all over his frame, neither 
bird nor beast took the slightest notice. I might, indeed, 
almost have been inclined to regard Buphaga africana 
in a friendly light, since the flights of these birds 
passing overhead at dawn have, on occasion, indicated 
the presence and direction of game. But the testimony 
of far more experienced observers has proved conclusively 
that the little tick-bird possesses a full sense of gratitude 
towards its hosts, and habitually gives alarm to the 
animals (especially rhino and buffalo) which may, at the 
moment, be providing it with a meal. 
The avocation of these birds, as indicated by their 
name, is to subsist on those loathsome parasitic insects, 
