STONE CURLEW 



151 



object, and left it there ; but a few days later both had 

 disappeared. It is, of course, possible that they had 

 really been eaten by a Varanus lizard ; I have elsewhere 

 described how one seized a bird I had shot. The Mutunwa 

 has a most curious habit of, as it were, shrugging its 

 shoulders, a habit shared by many of the kingfishers, of 

 which the meaning is quite obscure. They are certainly 

 decidedly procryptic birds, and this unnecessary move- 

 ment helps to reveal them when they might otherwise 

 escape notice. 



Their characteristic cry is often heard at night, especially 

 in bright moonlight. It begins with a single high- 

 pitched note, sharply accentuated, and then a series 

 beginning lower than the first, rising to the same level 

 and falling again — a very mournful cadence. It may be 

 represented graphically thus : 



d! 



>l j 



llllfe, 



One stone curlew that I shot on Nsadzi in order to in- 

 vestigate its stomach contents had eaten a cricket and 

 apparently a small frog, so far as I could tell from the 

 slender bones that were aU that was left. 



The common Sandpiper [Tringoides hypoleucos) is 

 abundant on beaches or flat rocks, very often singly, 

 sometimes in small flocks. 



It may be seen at the Ripon falls paddling about in 

 the water at the very edge of the cascade, occasionally 

 having to leap away from an unusually large patter of 

 spray or a rush of water. Possibly it feeds upon the 

 Simulium larvae which adhere to the rocks in abundance 

 in such localities. 



