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dirty white. Their feathers are coarse and harsh- 

 looking, giving them always a rather untidy appear- 

 ance. The bill and feet are black, the latter strong 

 and furnished with powerful claws, especially that on 

 the hind toe, which is long and straight like a lark's 

 (hence the name), and of great use in assisting them 

 among the tangled grass they like to frequent. The 

 iris is bright red, giving them an alert and rather 

 fierce expression. In length they measure about six- 

 teen inches, of which the tail forms nearly half. Their 

 usual note is one of the commonest sounds of the 

 evening and earlj' part of the night, and can generally 

 be heard on all sides about sunset and after, as one 

 bird answers another, " wu-tu-tu-tu " repealed ad 

 libihim with a gradually falling pitch, the performer 

 attitudinising the while on his perch, his throat puffed 

 out and collapsed alternately, his head bowed forward 

 till his beak points to his toes, his tail bent downwards 

 till parallel with his legs, and his whole altitude 

 apparenth' one of stiff and grotesque discomfort. At 

 other times the\' also utter a sort of cackle somewhat 

 like the Bush-fowl's call. According to the Mandin- 

 goes the " Kandi-wutu," as they call this bird, kills 

 and eats snakes, and what is more, they assure me 

 that they never find one of their nests whicli does not 

 contain a living but crippled snake, kept there to 

 scare away intruders. This seems a tall story, es- 

 pecially as none of my informants have yet been able 

 to show me a nest (although from the number of birds 

 about, these must be quite common), to confirm or 

 otherwise discredit his story ; however, I am pretty 

 certain in my own mind that they are probably correct 

 about the snake-eating, that is they are no doubt just 

 as fond of small snakes, as they are of lizards, which 

 I have seen them catch. But the crippled snake is 

 a myth which has, I expect, grown up from the fact 

 that the birds may sometimes ornament their nests 

 with a cast snake-slough : a Mandingo could easily 



