1776. January. but owned at the fame time, that it was there uncommon as well as flay; nor did it diredt them to the honey fo readily and diftindtly, as in the tradt o f country where we then were in the defert, and near the river t'Kau-fkai, or Great Vifcb-river. By collating this laft remark with my account o f the cuculus indicator, or honey-guide, inferted in the Pbilofo- pbical PranfaSlions, Vol. LXVII. page 38 and 43, it will appear, that a geographical error has been fuffered to take place there; probably in eonfequence of their being obliged, as my account was written in Engliili, to alter this pafiage, fo as to make it approach nearer to the idiom of the Eng- liih language. Though I had frequently in the defert, and once at Ag- ter Bruntjes-boogte, feen this bird, which,- on account of the Angular property it is endued with, is called by the colonifts bdning-wyzer, or the honey-guide, and, indeed, had not unfrequently reaped the fruits o f its fervices, yet I had not an opportunity o f ihooting it till I was on the rpad to return home, when I one day purfued it, the little creature all the while flying before me with its cheering note o f cberr, cberr. This, however, offended my Boihies- men not a little : and though I had previoufly promifed an ample reward, coniifting o f glafs beads and tobacco, to my Zwellendam Hottentots, on condition that they would affift me in catching and ihooting a honing-wyzer, yet I found them too much the bird’s friends to betray i t ; a circum- ftance that gave me great pleafure, as it ihewed that thefe people were in general poflefied of good and grateful hearts; though though ingratitude, I am very forry to fay it, is a crime, ,3 ^ ,. by no means rarely to be met with among men. While I refided in the interior part o f Africa, I was ihewn a bird’s-neft, which feveral farmers aflured me was that o f the bee-cuckow. It refembled the nefts o f certain finches, which are found in thofe parts, and was formed of fine Ihreds of bark, interwoven and plaited together in the ihape of a bottle. The neck or aperture o f it hung downwards, and a plaited cord, made o f the fame kind o f bark as the neft, hung, as it were, in a fwing, crofs-wife, over and below the opening, being fattened by both ends to the brim of this fame aperture, and was certainly intended for the bird to.reft itfelf and rooft upon. The following defcription o f this bird was drawn up- from the two which I ihot, and which were fuppofed to> be h e n s f o r the cock is faid to have its neck (capijlrum)) encircled with a black ring. Roftrum crajfnxfculum, verfus bafin fufcum, apice luteum.. Angulus oris ufque infra oculos extenfus. Nares pojlrema ad bafin Roftri, fuprema vicina, ut car inula dorfali faltem fepararentur, oblongee, margine prominulo. Pili aliquot ad' bafin Roftri, pracipue in mandibula inferiore; Lingua plana fubfagittata. Oculorum. Irides ferrugineo-grifeae; Palpebrse nuda, nigra. Pedes nigri fcanforii-,. Tibise brevisT Ungues, tenues, nigri. Pileus late grifeus e pennis brevibus latiufcu- Us. Gula, Jugulum, Pedtus, fordide alba, cum aliquo v i- vere vix notabiU in petlore. Dorfum 8c Uropygium ferru- gineo-grifea. Abdomen Criffumque alba.. Femora tedla pennis albis, macula longitudinali nigra notatis. Alarum: Tedtrices Superiores, omnes grifeo-Jufca exceptis fummis aliquot,.
27f 72-2
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