w how to imitate every animal he has ever heard."

"Did you hear the dance he led some of the Hottentots on Sunday evening,
when we were at the Mission?"

"No; what was that?"

"Bremen told me of it; I thought he would have died with laughing. You
are aware that there is a species of bird here which they call the
honey-bird,--by naturalists, the _Cuculus indicator_; do you not
remember I showed you a specimen which I was preserving?"

"You have showed us so many specimens, that I really forget."

"Well, I should have given you at the same time the natural history of
the bird. It is very partial to honey, upon which it lives as much as it
can; but as the bees make their hives in the trunks of old decayed
trees, and the hole they enter by is very small, the bird can not obtain
it without assistance. Its instinct induces it to call in the aid of
man, which it does by a peculiar note, like cher-cher-cher, by which it
gives notice that it has found out a beehive. The natives of Africa well
know this, and as soon as the bird flies close to them, giving out this
sound, they follow it; the bird leads them on, perching every now and
then, to enable them to keep up with it, until it arrives at the tree,
over which it flutters without making any more noise."

"How very curious!"

"Little Bushman knows this as well as the Hottentots, and hearing that
they were going out in search of honey he went before them into the
wood, concealing himself, and imitating the note of the bird so exactly,
that the Hottentots went on following it for several miles, wondering
how it was that the bird should lead them such a distance, but unwilling
to give up the pursuit. About sunset, he had brought them back to the
very edge of the wood from whence they had started, when he showed
himself about one hundred yards ahead of them, dancing, capering, and
tumbling so like Begum, that they thought it was her before them, and
not him. He gained the caravan again without their knowing who played
them the trick; but he told Swanevelt, who speaks his language, and
Swanevelt told Bremen."

"Capital!" said the Major; "well, he is after some trick now, depend
upon it."

"He has a great talent for drawing," observed Alexander.

"A very great one; I have given him a pencil and occasionally a piece of
paper, and he draws all the birds, so that I can recognize them; but you
must know that all the Bushmen have that talent, and that their caves
are full of