MOTA 
infulated fltrub, butr always in a thick bufli difficult of 
accefs. The laying is from five to eight eggs, ufually fix, 
more or lefs fpeckled with brown according’to the age of 
the female, that is, lefs fo at the firft laying than at the 
fecond. It fhould alfo be obferved, that the firft neft is 
never fo large nor fo well made as the following ones; an 
obfervation which applies to birds in general. So foft and 
commodious a neft as that of the pinc-pinc excites envy 
in other birds; and, he is often driven out of his houfe, 
after feeing his little family deftroyed, or his female’s 
eggs broken to pieces; fometimes the fame pair hasfeveral 
nefts deftroyed one after another in the fame feafon. 
The enemies of the pinc-pinc are, among birds, the 
titmoufe and the barbet; of quadrupeds, the rnoufe; 
of infedls, the wafp and the ant. Even reptiles will 
glide into the neft, eat the young or the eggs, and take 
up their lodging in the fame place. So formidable and fo 
numerous are the enemies of this little creature! The 
titmice, or the barbets, when they feize upon a neft of 
this kind, have nothing to do but to enlarge the orifice, 
which they perform without much difficulty, becaule it 
is compadtly formed, very thin, and will ftretch a good 
deal. Mice will bring forth their young, and lay up their 
winter-provifion, in one of thefe nefts. Reptiles will 
conceal themfelves alfo therein; but chiefly a kind of 
green ferpent found on trees and bulhes, whofe bite is 
harmlefs. The wafps and ants, when they take pofleffion, 
conftrudt cells in the interior, where they depolit their 
larvse; the ants are of the winged kind. 
The male pinc-pinc is three inches eight lines in ex¬ 
treme length. His colours are not brilliant: the plumage 
of the upper furface is dark brown edged with a lighter 
tint; the under parts rufous white, fpeckled with brown; 
the tail, which is very Ihort, is light brown on the outer 
barbs, blackifli within, but tipped with white; it is fo 
tapered as to form a lemicircle when fpread out; the 
rump and lower-belly are reddifli; bill and eyes brown, 
legs and feet dull yellow. Upon the whole, the plumage 
bears fome refemblance to that of the lark, efpecially the 
female, whofe colours are flatter; the male perhaps may 
remind us rather of the colour of the common grey par¬ 
tridge. We have given a delineation of the male, of 
the natural fize, and a reduced figure of the neft, on 
Plate VI. 
The pinc-pinc fits fifteen days, and is one of thofe to 
whom the cuckoo confides her egg, which however muft 
be dropped or puflied in, for no cuckoo could enter the 
orifice of on oi thefe nefts, not even the gilded cuckoo, 
called by Vaillan didric, which is one of the fmalleft of 
the African ipecies; and heobferved thatthe nefts wherein 
was found the cuckoo’s eggs, W'ere not at all damaged, as 
if the entrance had been forced ; it was not till the cuckoo 
began to grow pretty large that the neft loft its fhape. 
But indeed Vaillant afcertained, after long watching 
and minute attention, that a cuckoo does not enter a neft 
to lay her egg, but lays it on the ground or in any more 
convenient place, and then carries it in her mouth, and 
drops or pulhes it into the neft Ihe has leledied for it. 
(Oifeaux d’Afrique, tom v. p. 47.) In the prefent cafe, 
it feems very extraordinary that a little bird which often 
abandons her own eggs when they have been handled, 
fhould condefcend to hatch the egg of another bird, who, 
having deftroyed all lier’s, leaves her one much larger; 
for, although in general the cuckoo lays an egg fmaller in 
proportion to her lize than other birds, it is equally cer¬ 
tain, that there muft be a confidc-rabie difference in fize 
between the eggs of any cuckoo and that of a bird fo 
fmall as the pinc-pinc, which we have defcribed to be 
no bigger than a wren. Befides, a large egg muft be 
more inconvenient to the little bird to fit upon than 
feveral fmall ones; fo that fhe certainly muft be confcious, 
fays Vaillant, that fhe is not hatching her own. And 
how can we conceive, continues he, that the young cuc¬ 
koo, who at fifteen days old muft be big enough tofwallow 
CILLA. 10S 
both father and mother, does not fcare them away. All 
this muft be regulated by the fpecial diredtion of Pro¬ 
vidence. 
211. Motacilla apus, the flower-pecker. This is pro¬ 
bably the fmalleft bird in Africa; it is lefs even than the 
M. regulus. The bill is extremely weak, as ftraight as 
a needle, without any bend or fwell, and fcarcely any 
greater breadth at the bafe ; its mouth therefore is pro- 
portionably fmall; and it can feed only on very fmall 
infects, which it feeks for among the flowers or bloffoms 
of trees, picking and digging into the petals, to get at 
the minute fcarabsei which lie in the calyces of fuch 
flowers. Seeing thefe birds conftantly darting their bills 
into the flowers of prickly fhrubs, it might be fuppofed 
that they draw their nouriihment from the juices they 
contain ; but, upon diffedtion, we find that is impoffible; 
for their tongue, which is hardly vifible, is not hollowed 
out like a trunk, nor reticulated, nor capable of being 
darted into the bottom of the calyces of flowers, as in 
thofe birds which pierce them and extradt their juices. 
Nor has any thing been found in their ftomachs but the 
remains of very fmall infedts, mixed with fome fmall 
grains of fand and bits of flowers; of two-and-thirty 
which Vaillant killed, he never found in their gizzards 
the leaft appearance of grain or feed; it is certain there¬ 
fore that they live only on inledts, and thofe of the fmalleft 
kind, which they pick out from flowers and leaves. This 
fpecies is not much extended; Vaillant obferved them 
only in one diftridt, about a place he calls Heere Loge- 
ment, and thence to Elephant-river and a little farther. 
Like the preceding, they go in little flocks of fix or eight 1 
they are very nimble, and continually in motion from 
flower to flower, which, added to their diminutive fize, 
makes it very difficult to lhoot them. Their note is 
zizizi, zizizi, fo weak as hardly to be heard did not the 
wdiole flock found it together. The colours are not re¬ 
markable. The throat is whitifli; the reft of the under 
part of the body faint yellow; the wdngs and tail are 
light brown, the reft of the upper furface flate-colour; 
the eyes are brown, legs and feet brownifli. The male is 
diftinguiftied by a little tuft of feathers on the upper 
mandible, diredlly over the noftrils; they are partly white, 
partly black, railed, and diredted forwards. This is en¬ 
tirely wanting in the female ; her colours are alfo duller. 
The nefting, &c. are not known. 
212. Motacilla curvata, the curved-bill fig-eater. This 
fpecies is plentiful about the Elephant-river, where it is 
called krome-ltec , which in Dutch fignifies a curved bill. 
As the bill of the Motacilla genus is in general ftraight, 
this bird might be miftaken for a colibri, or for a creeper, 
but it has not the tongue of the firft, nor the feet and tail 
of the laft. Its tongue refembles the preceding fpecies, 
therefore we need not repeat what we have juftfaid. It 
feeks its food in the fame manner; and its colours 
moreover lufficiently diftinguifli it from the creepers. Its 
hue is fo Ample and monotonous, that it would hardly 
be difeerned among the branches of mimofa where it 
commonly refides, but for its extreme vivacity and little 
fong. The male is commonly feen accompanied by his 
female, who refembles him lo much, that they can hardly 
be diftinguilhed but upon diffedtion : the bill of the female 
is fomewhat Ihorter, yet this part in the young males is 
as Ihort. Thefe birds conceal their nefts with great care; 
Vaillant could never procure one, though he offered a 
premium to his Hottentots for that purpofe. The upper 
furface of the body, head, neck, wings, and tail, are grey- 
brown, almoft cinereous; the under parts faint red, darker 
under the belly and tail; bill light brown, eyes hazel,. 
legs and feet reddilh. Extreme length, four inches and 
one line. Thefe birds are found on the banks of the 
Green River, and of the Great or Orange River, but 
chiefly about the Elephant-river; and on the mimofa 
flirubs they are continually reiterating their cry of tiotic- 
tic, tie-tic-trie. 
21 J- 
2 
