NATURALISTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
LETTERS from Natal and the Cape frontier show that, when not marching or fighting, our officers and soldiers find abundance of interest in the natural history of South Africa. The Tugela Valley is famous for its birds and flowers; and at least one excellent collection of the former was made by members of the field force and sent home before the investment of Ladysmith. Botany on the battlefield, or very near to it, has been the amusement of many of those at the front, who, to their surprise, found that at no great distance were valleys and glens gay with scarlet and deep- blue flowers, with erythrinas, plumbago, and wild gardenias. On the far western frontier, before the battles of Belmont and Modder River, herds of springbucks were seen crossing the flats between the two armies, and the tales of old South African travel seemed almost to live again in sight of our troops. Deep was the interest of the " Tommies " when flocks of real locusts came flying in myriads across the plain and over the camp. They darkened the air above the Guards' quarters. "Real locusts they were ; we have been shying sticks at them all day," writes one enthusiastic private among the Coldstreams to his family circle. Veterans of the Crimea will recall with a smile the brighter days of spring after the winter of discontent had passed, when parties of officers rode out and found the Tchernaya Valley gay with brilliant flowers, and how one distinguished and scientific officer, with his aide-de-camps and orderlies in attendance, rode to view the enemy's encampments across the river with a rare and enormous locust, rivalling in dimensions that which surmounts Sir Thomas Gresham's Royal Exchange, securely pinned to the most prominent part of his saddle. One of the first victims of the bombardment of Ladysmith was Mr. Stark, who was engaged in the serious study of South African ornithology. He had just completed a hand- book of the birds of South Africa, while Mr. W. L. Sclater, Curator of the Cape Town Museum, and son of the distin- guished naturalist who is secretary of the Royal Zoological Society, is engaged in writing a similar volume on the South African beasts. Mr. Stark was killed by a shell as he was leaving the hotel door, and when falling called out, "Take care of my cat." It was said that the last word was not finished, and that he intended to say "catalogue." But he was not compiling a catalogue of birds, and had found and rescued a cat which had been abandoned by its owners, and which he had kept at the hotel.
Mr. Stark's volume is not yet published, but a useful little book on the birds of Natal and Northern Cape Colony, in- cluding most of the districts now the seat of war, has just been pul,lished in Pietermaritzburg by Messrs. R. B. and J. D. S. Woodward (Davis and Son, Pietermaritzburp 2s. 6c1.) The birds of there regions are curiously mixed. Many, like the shrikes, flycatchers, and swallows, recall our familiar birds. Our English cuckoo and English swallow actually migrate as far as this far Southern continent. In contrast with these are others not excelled in brilliant plumage by the birds of the tropics, and in the same Colony in which our common red-backed shrike makes its winter home are the magnificent purple and green tureens, or plantain-eaters, and sun-birds, which rival the brilliant hues of the humming-birds. Whole tribes of different flycatchers, warblers, and shrikes in- habit the bush. Some of the bush-warblers' nests are triumphs of architecture. One stitches its nest on every side to leaves of laurels by spider-web silk; another sews its home to the leaves of tall weeds by threads of grass. The emerald cuckoo, which has a note much like that of our cuckoo, only with both syllables "long "—" coo-coo "—lays its eggs in the nests of the Karoo sparrows. The brilliant Whydah finches are well known in English aviaries. There are hoopoes, many kingfishers, some of which live mainly on locusts and do not touch fish, honey-guides, and swarms of kites and buzzards. One of the best known birds is a large grey shrike, called the "Fiscal." The " Fiscal " was a Dutch Magistrate with a large discretion in the matter of capital punishment, and the ways of this shrike rendered the name appropriate. It twists off the heads of smaller birds, quarters their bodies, and impales them on convenient thorns. English Colonists call it "Johnny Hangman." When kept in a cage, it will hang up all its food in this way if proper hooks are pro. vided. It flourishes in spite of the reclamation of the Colony, and has established itself in the parks and public gardens of the towns. The familiar birds of everyday life, those which correspond to the species best known at home, are always matter of interest in a strange land. In Natal the place of our rook is taken by the black crow, which is gregarious, and increases, just as our rook does, on cultivated land, whence its Colonial name of "corn crow." Besides this South African rook there is a white-necked raven, which has the habits of our carrion crow. Before the appearance of rinderpest it was very common. But like the vultures, these carrion crows were poisoned by eating the flesh of the oxen killed by the plague, and died off in numbers. The great vulture of the hills, the " Aarvogel," was seen both at Magersfontein and at Modder River soaring over the kopjes. It is the same bird as the griffon vulture of Southern Europe, almost the largest of the flesh-eating birds of the Old World. Nor must the secretary-bird be forgotten, which is protected by law, and almost domesticated on many farms, on account of its reptile. killing habits, or the "smoke-bird," a black shrike, which follows the bush fires and feeds on roasted insects and grilled mice. Though our English swallow flies as far south as the old Colony, the domestic swallow of South Africa is the red swallow. Its head and back above the tail are red, like the throat of the English swallow. Like the latter, it is a home favourite. The Colonists put up boards as supports for its nest, and encourage it in every way. The direct services which it renders in keeping down the number of mosquitos and flies would entitle it to protection if sentiment did not make the same claim. The Cape canary, the beet song-bird of the Colonies, is common in the gardens round Pietermaritz- burg, while on the Tugela a large yellow canary is found. The common canary comes in spring, and has a small relation, the "mealie bird," which lives mainly in the patches of Indian corn. So much has been written on the disappearance of the large game of South Africa, that its absence will not surprise our soldier naturalists. But the beautiful little klipspringer the African chamois, is still common in the Drakeneberg, and the baboons find a home on the big rocky ranges. We wonder whether the baboon kept at De Aar Junction is still alive. It had been taught to open and close the points on the railway, and was a famous animal in those parts.
It was reported that among the casualties at Modder River were several cases of snake-bite. This is not unlikely, for the men were lying and crawling on the hot plain, where snakes love to bask. The snakes of South Africa are both common and deadly. Cobras of all sizes, and ranging in colour from pale yellow to black, are perhaps the most active and dangerous. One the Boers call the "spitting snake," and declare that it can spit the venom which °cotes from its fangs. Perhaps this belief should be ranged with the curious stories told by Lucan in his " Pharsalia " of the snakes which caused great losses to the rebel army in North Africa. He declares among other things that one bit an ensign's spear, and that the venom ran up the handle and affected his arm! Ultimately the services of a snake-charming tribe were secured—probably the descendants of the race who performed before Pharaoh—and they quieted the fears of the soldiers. The "Ring Hals," a large and venomous black and white snake, is also believed to "spit poison." It is "much respected" everywhere. So are the "hornesman," or horned viper, and the berg adder. The big pythons are said to have disappeared from the old Colony, in spite of a curious belief common to natives and whites that the killing of one always brings bad luck. The greatest enemies of the snakes are the kites and eagles, especially the tawny eagles. These, and a very fine black eagle called the Verreeux eagle, are common on the lower slopes of the Drakensberg. If the fortunes of war change in Natal, soldier naturalists may be interested to know that the latter bird breeds close to the Upper Tugela falls, on a cliff eight hundred feet high. Young eaglets from such an eyrie would be a trophy worthy of a Roman legion.
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