The Zoologist/4th series, vol 2 (1898)/Issue 684/Zoological Rambles in the Transvaal

by William Lucas Distant

 

ZOOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN THE TRANSVAAL.

By W.L. Distant.

 

Barberton.—To leave the high veld as seen around Pretoria and Johannesburg, respectively 4500 ft. and 5600 ft. above sea-level, and to travel to Barberton with its altitude of only 3000 ft., backed by thickly wooded hills, is a great treat for a naturalist. Formerly, as when I first visited the State, the journey consisted of a long and weary coach-ride, but in 1895 I covered the distance in twenty-four hours, thanks to a combination of rail and coach, though long since then the passenger travels the whole distance by rail. The scenery becomes very fine after the descent is made into the Crocodile River valley, but this grand stream now contains, or did at the time of my visit, comparatively few fish. The reason is soon told. During the construction of the railway, which in parts almost follows the course of the river, it was found cheaper to give the Kafirs a couple of dynamite cartridges, with which they could obtain a fish diet, than to supply them with the usual allowance of "mealies." The completion of this railway was a very slow process, and the river thus became almost depopulated. The contractor who gave me this information, and who had himself constructed that part of the line, related an instance of Kafir ignorance or stupidity in using these cartridges. An individual, fresh to the work, lighted the fuse of both cartridges, one of which he held in his hand, while he watched the effect of the other he had thrown in the water, with a result that is unnecessary to describe. But it will be long before the Crocodile River is again well stocked with fish; the use of the dynamite cartridge is somewhat prevalent in Transvaal rivers, and if the vast railway enterprise only now commencing in Africa is conducted on similar lines, ichthyologists will soon have to record a vast diminution in specimens, if not in species.

At Crocodile Poort, where rail was exchanged for coach, and a six or seven hours' drive to Barberton was then a necessity, a small store existed where passengers obtained refreshment. While breakfasting here on my return journey, some Kafirs brought in a very healthy young Lion cub, with the skin and skull of its mother, which they had recently killed on the opposite side of the river, thus proving conclusively that Lions were still found in this part of the Transvaal, a fact of which I had been in some doubt. Securing Lion cubs is a dangerous proceeding. I heard that a short time previously some Kafirs had found unprotected cubs, and had crossed the river three times with them to destroy their spoor, as they felt the parents would undoubtedly follow. They safely secured their retreat with the cubs, but the infuriated Lions came across some innocent Kafirs, and killed three of them. I endeavoured in vain to purchase this young specimen from the storekeeper, but found £5 no inducement. Both the skins and skulls of Lions are occasionally brought into Pretoria market by the Boers, and during the scarcity of game caused by the rinderpest more than one was killed in spots much nearer civilization than was considered probable.

But there are other noxious animals in the vicinity. I had a chat with a colonial who had embarked in Transvaal farming, and listened to a tale of woe. Porcupines (Hystrix afra-australis) were devastating his potatos; they ran between the rows of "earthed-up" plants, where they easily burrowed and secured the roots; a colony of Baboons visited at uncertain intervals his "mealie" crop, as did also some "Wild Pigs," probably Sus africanus, whilst Locust swarms frequently ravaged the farm. My friend Dr. Percy Rendall, who resided near, and in, Barberton for some two years, and was an enthusiastic and successful naturalist and collector, has recorded the Antelopes of the district in "Field-notes on the Antelopes of the Transvaal."^[1]

Barberton is a quiet little town now, with memories of vanished glories and perished prosperity as a mining centre. Lofty and well-wooded mountains form its background; in front, one gazes over an undulating scene; the surface is waved, and looks like a petrified stormy sea. In the town no one seemed prosperous, and no one hopeless, and there was a Micawber-like trust in some vast future gold industry. The climate is subtropical—the temperature reached 128° F. during my visit (January)—good pineapples can be grown, but the peaches are very inferior. Few flowering plants were to be seen, as the season was too far advanced; ferns were abundant in number and species, and many terrestrial orchids were to be found.

Some very interesting Spiders are common to this locality. When in Pretoria, my friend Dr. Kendall sent me two specimens of a fine "Mygale" (Harpactira gigas),^[2] with the following notes:—(1) "Captured under a large stone, and put in a box with a Frog, which it promptly attacked and bit. The Frog died very soon afterwards. There was no combat so far as the Frog was concerned, only fright. (2) I have obtained another 'Mygale,' and some day or two after it had been killed it fell on the ground, and was promptly pounced upon by a half-grown cat, which ate a portion of the body, and then turned deathly sick, staggered about, lay down on its side panting, and seemed about to die; but, after thus fruitlessly arousing our compassion, recovered after some hours." This was probably caused by the hairs attached to the body of the Spider. Bates, giving his experience on the Amazons of a species, Mygale avicularia, writes:—"The hairs with which they are clothed come off when touched, and cause a peculiar and almost maddening irritation. The first specimen that I killed and prepared was handled incautiously, and I suffered terribly for three days afterwards." The total length of this formidable creature of Barberton is forty millimetres.

Another somewhat small but social Spider, Stegodyphus gregarius, is not uncommon either at Barberton or Pretoria. Its presence is denoted by its large irregularly shaped nest affixed to the twigs of some thorn bush, where it is liable to create a momentary impression that one is looking at some unknown lepidopteral construction. The size of the nest is clearly variable. The Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, in describing the species, wrote^[3]:—"A nest of this Spider, containing numerous live individuals of both sexes, some adult, some immature, was sent a short time ago by Col. Bowker from Durban to Lord Walsingham, who, kindly acting on my suggestion, sent the whole to this Society's Gardens, where, as I understand from Mr. Arthur Thomson, in whose care they are placed, the whole family are in a very active and thriving state. The nest is of considerable size, and filled a box of two feet long by nine inches wide and five deep. Above this nest I hear that the Spiders have now spun lines up to the top of the case in which they have been placed, as though for the ensnaring of flies, &c.; but as their work is entirely nocturnal no observations have yet been practicable in respect to the most interesting part of a Spider's economy. They appear to devour cockroaches and crickets, tearing them to pieces, and each carrying off his share of the prey, like a pack of hounds breaking up a Fox." As observed by Mons. E. Simon in Colombo—for the species is found both on the East Coast of Africa and in India—several hundred individuals spin on a bush an immense nest which has the form of an irregular sack, of which the interior is divided by partitions and traversed by passages.^[4] The nest, which I have here figured, natural size, is seen to be very much smaller than those thus described, while the dead leaves which are incorporated tend to render it inconspicuous at a distance. Some of the Pretoria nests were larger and much more foliaceous, but unfortunately this part of my collection was lost in transit, and the nest figured is the only one I now possess. Fortunately, however, its identity is beyond question, as the Spiders recognized by Mr. Pocock as Stegodyphus gregarius were captured after emerging from this very nest. I once placed a similarly-sized nest in a cardboard box about one foot square, and for the time forgot all about it. When I did look again, numbers of Spiders had emerged from it and spun all over the box, the contents of which then appeared like one huge nest. It is probable in such a case that the box prompted the enlargement of the nest, or it may be provided a domicile suitable for the construction of the inner arrangements. Hence such a nest might be considered of an artificial or non-natural size, and may possibly explain the dimensions of the one sent home from Natal, and described by Mr. Cambridge, as previously quoted. I neither affirm nor suggest that such large nests are not constructed in the open; I can only assert that I have never seen such, but have met with quantities of the size figured.

 

Nest of Social Spider (Stegodyphus gregarius, Camb.).

 

"Rymer's Creek" is a happy hunting-ground for an entomologist. It is a mountain path running at the back of the town, and which gradually narrows as it is ascended, for richer vegetation waits on its higher altitude. Delightful rivulets of cold spring water afford relief to the tired and too-perspiring naturalist, while for butterflies it proved the richest rendezvous I met in the Transvaal. Here one meets with the Natal Lepidopteral fauna, such species as Amauris dominicanus, Protogoniomorpha anacardii, Charaxes varanes, and Papilio ophidicephalus never being procured on the high veld of the Transvaal.

I left Barberton on Jan. 28th, when heavy rain began to set in. It was described as having been the driest summer remembered, and the watercourses were almost empty; but I heard a few days after:—"We have had awful weather since you left us; since the morning of the 28th over twelve inches of rain have fallen. From Thursday, Feb. 6th, at 1.30, to Friday the 7th, same hour, there fell 6·04 in. The country is full; letters cannot go forward.... I don't think you would know the creek again if you came back; the road is gone, and is now like the bed of a mountain torrent."

A peculiar coincidence with this dry summer (1894–5) in Pretoria was noted in the 'Transvaal Advertiser':—"This is an age of records, but Pretoria is recording an experience with reference to Horse-sickness which is wholly unprecedented. There may have been one or two isolated cases in town, but Horse-sickness—as known—has utterly failed to put in an appearance this year, whilst 'red-water' amongst cattle is raging throughout the land."

The Neighbourhood of Pienaars River.—This is one of the most easily reached and best collecting-grounds near Pretoria. It used to be a six hours' coach journey, but the Pietersburg Railway is now, I believe, completed to the neighbourhood, so that coaching in this direction is now a thing of the inconvenient past. Driving by road there is not much to strike the traveller beyond the usual open, dreary, but healthy veld, till Hammans Kraal is reached, and then a bush or forest country commences and continues to the Pienaars River. Hammans Kraal deserves a passing notice. It is here that the arachnologist Mons. E. Simon made a stay during his visit to the Transvaal; and when, as is sometimes the case, that locality alone is appended to scientific descriptions, specialists should add "Pretoria District."

With the bush country commences an altogether different avian fauna from the scanty one as seen on the barren veld, where mining and commerce hold their sway. Here nature offers nothing but herself, and though the naturalist will rejoice, the incipient Midas will go empty away; it is a great felicity in our journey through this world to now and then reach an oasis which affords no prospect for commercial enterprise, and where natural conditions may survive—especially in the Transvaal. Driving along this road in the Easter holidays of 1894, I witnessed one of those travelling concourses of birds which have been described by Bates on the Amazons, Stolzmann in Peru, Belt in Nicaragua, and Hudson in Patagonia. Most of the local birds were represented, and were constantly crossing the road between the bush; it was not a rush, but more of a social excursion or food exploration from one part of the bush to another; and when I returned along the same road a few days later very few birds were seen, and these only of one or two of the commonest species. I never met with such a moving and varied assembly of birds again, and they were plentiful on and off for at least ten miles of the road. In February of 1891, along this very road, I once witnessed—but from a coach, when I could do nothing—vast quantities of what was to me always a very scarce butterfly, Teracolus celimene, which literally swarmed over damp roadside places. But though I made many subsequent excursions over the same area, at similar and other times of the summer season, and extending over a period of three years, I never met the species again. In this spot and in the month of November a lovely Crinum, apparently C. ammocharoides, may be found in all the luxuriance of its deep red bloom. Its beauty is somewhat short-lived, and I only saw it in bloom during this month. Lieut, von Höhnel found it blooming in the neighbourhood of Lake Stefanie in April, but that date is near the commencement of the rainy season there, as November is in the Transvaal. The plant evidently comes on very rapidly with the first advent of the rains, after having been incased in the brick-like earth during the dry season. It was a most interesting subject to myself as seen in bloom; for long before I dreamed of visiting the African continent I had vainly tried, under glass and with heat, to cultivate the large and unsightly bulb. I succeeded in producing magnificent leaves, finer than those I subsequently saw under natural conditions, but I could never induce bloom. My failure was probably due to horticultural ignorance, as success is possible; but it emphasises the fact of the mystery of environmental conditions—all so simple and apparent in nature, so intricate under artificial arrangements. Another plant which may be found here, Sesamopteris pentaphylla, and which is not uncommon, possesses now a more general biological interest. Dr. Gregory, in his interesting book 'The Great Rift Valley,' has described and figured as a probable case of "mimicry" a number of the homopterous insect Ityræa nigrocincta, which in British East Africa clustered on a stem, and thus resembled the inflorescence of this plant. I have not, however, found the insect in the Transvaal, where the plant is anything but scarce; but I have seen many similar instances of other insects drying themselves in like manner and clusters after heavy rain, notably on one occasion by the Centoniid beetle Diplognatha hebræa, where certainly no "mimicry" was implied. The entomological circumstance is not unusual, but seldom, I think, so effective for suggesting "mimicry" as seen by Dr. Gregory.

In August, the height of the dry season, I have collected many birds in this neighbourhood. As soon as the bush is reached one is not long noticing the Drongo (Buchanga assimilis), a bird I never saw near Pretoria, but which is abundant in the bush and generally seen singly. I found the Drongo nesting in November. Small noisy flocks of long-tailed Shrikes (Urolestes melanoleucus) frequent the sides of the forest road. They perch high; and their long tails would probably be an inconvenience if they frequented the short, thick lower bush. Two Barbets are found; the pied (Pogonorhynchus leucomelas) is quite common. These birds fly singly in the bush and are easily approached. The beautiful Le Valliant's Barbet (Trachyphonus caffer) is much scarcer. Once among the thick twigs of a high tree I could just distinguish two birds either fighting or courting, and on firing I secured a specimen of this handsome species; I seldom saw it. An interesting bird common to this area is the Pied Babbling Thrush (Crateropus bicolor). Mr. Buckley, as quoted in Layard's 'Birds of South Africa,' well describes their habits—"going in flocks from tree to tree, following each other almost in single file;" and "if a wounded one gets into a tree it is extremely difficult to retrieve it." This last statement was precisely my own experience; and I had to send my Zulu attendant up a tree to retrieve a wounded bird which obstinately refused to move; but it is a remarkably tame and perhaps inquisitive bird if one remains quiet. Whenever resting in the bush I almost invariably expected after a short time to see this species close to me, either hopping on the ground near by among the bushes or settling in some adjacent tree overhead. Another tame bird is the scarce—for this part of the Transvaal at least—African Buzzard Eagle (Asturinula monogrammica). The specimen I secured allowed me to approach quite close; a second example was an equally near acquaintance at Delagoa Bay; while a third was absolutely brought to me at Pretoria which had fallen to a small boy with a catapult. It is, however, anything but a common bird; and Mr. Thomsen, who resides near Pienaars River and has well collected the birds there from time to time, told me my specimen was the first one he had seen. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, in Layard's 'Birds of South Africa,' writes of this bird: "Only just enters the country treated of in the present work, and never seems to come as low as the Cape Colony or even into Natal, as far as we know at present."

In connection with the habits of these and other allied Accipiters in the Transvaal, I often recalled a remark of the late Frank Buckland, as to being told by "a great observer of nature and a clever sportsman" that "hawks have their regular beat, and frequent daily the same line of country, soaring along for miles and miles in quest of prey," and that "he always marked the time and place when he saw a hawk on the hunt, and sure enough the next day would find my friend at the spot as confidently as if he was expecting a friend by the most punctual of railways." In a general and qualified way I found this true in the places I regularly frequented. If not violently disturbed the same bird may be seen day after day about the same spot and near the same hour, and even a specimen of Elanus cæruleus that was driven away at long range for several days continued to appear regularly and punctually till my son obtained a less impossible shot, which, though doing the bird comparatively little harm, caused a cessation of the visit at that particular spot.

Although the visit to Pienaars River which I am describing was at the commencement of August and in the midst of the dry season, the social Whitefronted Weaver Birds (Plocepasser mahali) had commenced to build their nests. They are tame birds and gregariously occupied the branches of some trees a very short distance from the store where I stayed. They have also a cheerful note and were continually exercising their short song. The Crimson-breasted Shrike (Laniarius atrococcineus) is here very common, flies low in the bush, and is easily secured. At this season Blue-breasted Waxbills (Uræginthus cyanogaster) are also seen in small flocks, and add a fitful and brilliant colour to the little cleared spots they frequent in the bright sunlight. The well-known and somewhat discordant cry of the Grey Plantain-eater (Schizœrhis concolor) frequently breaks the silence of the bush, but these birds are wary and difficult of approach. They are generally seen three or four together in a high tree, but with crest erect they usually take flight before one can get within range. However, it is not necessary to give a list of all the birds obtained, though reference may be made to the Lark-heeled Cuckoo (Centropus senegalensis), which is not uncommon near the Pienaars River. Many times, at a distance, I mistook this bird for an Accipiter, for its habits are somewhat solitary, and it perches and remains sitting stolidly in some tree near a clearing in the bush.

In November, when the rains were frequent, and the summer season fully on, I found many more good birds in this neighbourhood. Two fine Kingfishers, Halcyon albiventris and H. cyanoleuca, were both obtained some distance from the river and in the bush; the first named I also secured near Pretoria, likewise in bush away from water. The Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis), which, on the other hand, is not at all uncommon, I never met with away from the banks of a stream. Three Cuckoos, Cuculus clamosus, Coccystes jacobinus, and C. serratus, were also far from scarce during this month, and were all secured.

It was in this neighbourhood that, during my last year's stay in the Transvaal, three fine Bateleur Eagles (Helotarsus ecaudatus), one male, two females, were trapped—steel trapped—as their legs unfortunately bore witness. I was very anxious to secure these, and eventually did so, though I was compelled to purchase them from the Menagerie of Fillis's Circus—then performing in Pretoria—to which they had become annexed. I brought a male and female of these birds safely home to England with me, with a collection of other living creatures—a collection, however, which had for family reasons to be compulsorily broken up, after a Baboon had escaped from his cage and dismantled the drawing-room. Other living birds which I obtained from this district were the Black Goshawk (Melierax niger) and the Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus cæruleus).

Many of my visits to Pienaars River were of purely entomological interest. The thick bush and old timber were features unknown to the high veld, and the distance of some sixty miles introduced the collector to an almost new insect fauna. In March, towards the end of the warm season, the butterfly genus Teracolus is well represented. In this month I took, and not singly, T. subfasciatus, T. eris, T. agoye, T. auxo, T. evenina, T. achine, and T. phlegetonia; all these may therefore be considered as more or less forest or bush-haunting species. Besides butterflies, I also secured many undescribed species of moths, but these must be sought about November in the warm rainy period. In Coleoptera, as the wooded country would suggest, many Longicornia are to be obtained, and I was told by Mr. Thomsen, who collected there, that he procured some species by smartly tapping old trees with a stone near where the wellknown borings were observed, when the beetles,—probably Prionidæ, and very possibly Macrotoma palmata,—would come up sufficiently near to be seized cautiously and carefully by the antennæ. I tried the experiment myself, unsuccessfully, but can implicitly rely on the authenticity of my informant. This device was quite new to me, and is I believe generally unrecorded. But searching for beetles under bark is a course likely to prove introductory to new acquaintances, as near this neighbourhood I once found beneath the bark of an old tree-stump, some three feet above the ground, a pair of the Ophidian Trimerorhinus tritæniatus.

It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that in this wild spot my sojourn was made possible by the existence of a good hostelry where the naturalist or sportsman can not only live in comfort, and eat and drink with safety—the last a very questionable matter in some parts of the Transvaal where the Hebrew from Russian Poland too frequently presides—but which is, or was, kept by two cultivated Germans from Frankfurt, one of whom is a good local naturalist, and the other a charming vocalist and good fellow. I found neither "mailed" nor tight fist there.

 

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1. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1895, pp. 358–362.
2. A new species just described by Mr. Pocock (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 7, vol. i. p. 316). The same author has in these pages recently described stridulation in these Arachnids (ante, p. 14).
3. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1889, p. 44.
4. Hist. Nat. des Araignées, tome i. p. 251.