Evening star., 1901-02-02
IN SOUTH AFRICA.
The Country Is Full of Animal, Bird
and insect Life.


Correspondent London STANDARD
On the march, in camp or even during a
ight one cannot help noticing how full
South Africa is of animal. bird and insect
life. and, with the breeding season here
now. nature is at her best. The birds, es-
pecially. are very pretty with their gay
feathers-the red cardinals. bluejays and
blue starlings, golden orioles and little
hnches like Java Sparrows, with red beaks
All these frequent the few existing anes
and hedSes-which.. by the way, are only to
be found in the towns or villages. The Sec
retary birds are quite tame. as they have
never been shot at; hawks and kites are
plentiful and the vuitures crowd around
all our camping grounds. attracted by the
dead and dy y.ng horses. The game birds are
not many-partridges. with a few pleas
ants, snipe, quail and kooran and, perhaps
one might call the plover out here game
There are two kinds. the cappages and the
drumages. Along the rivers are four or
five varieties of kngfisher-the big black
and white spotted one. the larger and lesser
purple kind and the one have In Eng
land. Then come 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 one pound weight
something between club and a roach
and an ugly-looking brute like a dev -lfsh
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 two feet long, out Of bush by a
pool In which we were going to bathe. and
he swan like an eel across the water: and
we have come across two Big reptiles. about
six to eight 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
va ises. Centipedes are seen everywhere;
also a large. hairy SPIDER. light brown and
red who has nasty. poisonous way of BIT
ing, as have mosquitoes and flies. The lat
ter. now that the hot weather is here, are
almost plague. and wake one up as soon
as II gets light. The ants are most inter-
esting and all over the fiat parts OF the
country their huge hills. some of them six
and eight feet high. are studded thick as
they can be. Some build their hills around
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.
or 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
part it Is quite possible to get six to ten
head in day with uck, and three or four
different kinds Of buck. and If you IKE
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 al
ways left a sentry over our sentry. and he
would bark and snarl with all his might II
he was approached. The monkeys always
throw out f1anking guards and advance
scouts, as well as rear guards. when they
move together.