A Novel Nesting Place.

Otago Witness, Issue 1682, 16 February 1884, Page 27

A Novel Nesting Place.

Where do you think it was ? lam sure you would never guess. -.The story must bo quite true, it is so weU authenticated. It is told .by an , Indian officer. , It happened in tho year 1879; when he^was in camp at Fort, Napolum, Zula'land. He was on {fpeoial duty buying horses for the Cavalry Brigade, and, amongst others, bought a grey cob fn m a Government surveyor at Wakkerstroom. At tho time of purchaao it was noticed that its t^ail was in a peculiar knotted condition. It was taken to Eort Napoleon, distant about five days' march, and next morning, after reveille", the non-com-missioned officer in charge of tho troop noticed a Uttle dark-,coloured bird fly apd conceal itself

in tho Qxtremity of the cob's tail. Shortly after ho saw it reappear, settle near some spilt f oragain the picket Jines, feed, and then re,turn to its former hidiug- place. This roused the curiosity of the non-com., who, accompanied by several of the men of his troop, examined the cob'a tail, and there found a perfectly-formed bird's nest about three inches in diameter, and about six inches from top to base, beautifully lined with short chestnut-red hair, which, upon examination, it was found had been collected from red transport oxen and not from chestnut horses. "The moat striking thing which occurs to me," says the officer who writes the story, "is that the little bird must hayo accompanied the cob from Wakkerstroom, in the Transvaal, to our camp in Zululand, sufficient time not having elapsed since its arrival at the fort for so complete a nest to have been manufactured."

As tv twig of any eort, to say nothing of a tree, is quite a rare thing to sco in many parta of the Transvaal and Zululand, and as the nights are very cold, it is supposed, that thia tame little bird got into the hair of the horse's tail for warmth when tho animal was lying down, and than took it into its clover little 1 head to build its nest in those comfortable quarters. The bird is supposed to have been a fantail warbler, common to both Europe and South Africa. . ,