74 Bird Hunting on the White Nile, 



huge hairy spiders and enormous hairless ones of 

 ferocious attitude and powerful jaws often ran about 

 inside our tents, but luckily these never preyed upon 

 us. In one camp we were assailed by a whole army of 

 little bees, which were extremely diligent in building 

 small cocoon-shaped nests of mud in our bedding, boxes 

 and clothes. At night the nests were tenanted by their 

 builders, who resented a disturbance of their liai*dly- 

 eamed rest, and used their stings so freely that we were 

 obliged to search carefully for the nests and burn out 

 the defenders. Large black hornets were numerous, but 

 inoffensive if not molested. 



We yearned to catch and train one of the brilliant 

 plumaged bee-eaters, of which there were four kinds in 

 the country, to attend ujoon us and protect us from 

 these noxious insects. A bee-eater fears no insect. I 

 saw one of a small varietyff sitting on a twig suddenly 

 dart into the air and catch a great hornet in the tip of 

 its long bill. Returning to its perch with this delicate 

 morsel, the bee-eater crushed it thoroughly by passing 

 it to and fro through its beak and then suddenly 

 swallowed it whole. In our camps furthest to the south 

 white ants were a scourge and their ravages had to be 



ft Merops pusillus, P. L. S. Miill. 



