62 Bird Hunting on the White Nile. 



We never actually shot anyone, however, although 

 there were many narrow shaves. The traps which we 

 set for mammals, although carefully concealed, seldom 

 brought us profit. Goats tramped over them, natives 

 stole them, presumably for the copper wire of which 

 they were made, and dogs dragged them away for the 

 meat with which they were baited. 



These dogs, as is usual in Africa and the East, are 

 never fed, and consequently become very bold and expert 

 thieves. I had the misfortune to be ill in our first camp, 

 and the dogs used to creep into my tent at night and 

 drink the milk at my bedside. 



Another visitor, but a pleasing one, appeared in the 

 daytime. This was a little bird — the Lesser White- 

 throaty — a summer visitor to England, and exceedingly 

 numerous during our winter and spring on the White 

 Nile. The Whitethroat came to my tent for water, a 

 bucket of which was kept near my bed. On the very 

 first day of my illness this bird found out the water 

 and came into the tent, perching on the bed or my arm. 

 It stayed there most of the day, and whenever I 

 splashed my hand in the water it would hop down my 

 arm and suck the drops of w^ater from my finger tips. 



^ Sylvia curruca (Linn.) 



