Animal Life in South Africa.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11635, 16 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

Animal Life in South Africa.

On the march, in camp, or even during a fight, one cannot help noticing how full South Africa, is of animal, bird, and insect life, and, with the breeding season here now, Nature in at her best (so writes a correspondent of the Standard from Zeerust under date December 2). The birds especially are very pretty with their gay feathers— the red cardinals, blue jays, and hire starlings, golden orioles, and little finches like Java sparrows, with red beaks. AH these frequent the few existing lanes and hedges — which, by the way, are only to bo found in the towns or villages. The secretary birds are quite tame, as they h&ve never been shot at ; hawks and kites aro plentif us, and the vultures crowd round all our camping grounds, attracted by the dead and dying horses. The game birds aro not many — partridges, with a few pheasant*), snipe, quail, and kooran, and perhaps one might call the plover out hero game. There are two kinds — the cappages and the drumages. Along the livers are four or five varieties of kingfisher — the big black one and while spotted onr. the larger and lesser purple kin J , and tlie one we have in England. Then conio weaver birds, with their

hanging nests, and numbers of other pretty birds. In the rivers which we have tried we got a yellow fish about lib weight, something between a chub and a roach, and an ugly looking brute like a devil fish, with long spikes or feelers from his head. Land crabs we have caught and eaten, and iguanas, whose skins make capital tobacco pouches. Of snakes we do not see many. We frightened a very pretty green one, about 2ft long, out of a bush by a pool in which we were going to bathe, and he swam like an eel across the water; and wo have come across two big reptiles, about 6 or 8 feet long, which we were told are harmless. Puff adders are supposed to be plentiful. Scorpions are both plentiful and obnoxious, and after rain they may be looked for with some success in beds and valises. Centipedes are seen everywhere; also a large hairy spider, light brown and red, who has a nasty poisonous way of biting, as have mosquitoes and flies. The latter, now that the hot weather is here, are almost a plague, and wake one up as soon as it gets light. The ants are most interesting, and all over the flat parts of the country their huge bills, some of them 6 and 8 feet high, are studded as thick as they can be. Kome build their hills round trees, and others make them like a factory chimney, down which you can look. The white ants will eat your tunic or a helmet in a night. Of the big game, or rather the want of it, much has been written, and, compared with what the sport used to be, of course, there is not much to be had. But in some parts it is quite possible to get six to ten head in a day, with luck, and three or four different kinds of buck; and, if you like shooting them, you can bag* jackals, hyenas, and baboons. The latter we have only come across near Zeerust; and, close to an outpost we had, there were several, who always left a sentry over our sentry, and he would bark and snarl with ail his might if he was approached. The monkeys always throw out flanking guards and advance scouts, as well as rearguards, when they move together. The lizards are pretty little fellows, and catch flies vpry neatly — I wish they caught them oftener; and there is a brown, flat kind,*vory active on his feet. A squadron riding over him would find him unhurt or even untouched when they had passed. An insect called a mantis is very intelligent. There are two kinds; one lives among the dead grass, and is so like a bit of hay that, until he moves, even if you know he is there, it is impossible to find him. His green brother is exactly like him, except for his colour, which takes him to green grass. They both catch flies. Butterflies are both numerous and pretty, and at night time moths and cockroaches ■ and other flying pests are a great nuisance. There is also a beetle, very common about Lichtenburg and Zeerust, which collects horse dung in front of the tents, rolls it into a ball rather bigger than a goose's egg, and then shoves it along with his head. Every now and then he climbs to the top of the ball to see if it is going the right road.