collected in Eastern Africa. 279 



not only dried up every stream, but killed lialf tlie bush and 

 scrub ; so that our poor pack-animals had a bad time of it. 

 Pushing quickly along, we passed Dadab, Hensau, Lasman, 

 and Somadu, and arrived at Aruwini, where we found a little 

 water and collected a few birds. We met with hundreds 

 of Guinea-fow^l, and Dik-Diks were also plentiful; while at 

 Hensau hares were so numerous that we carried out a hare- 

 drive. The country was hard to travel over, being mostly 

 formed by volcanic ranges. At Somadu, at an elevation of 

 3500 feet, it was very cold. Bya Kaboba, our next halt, is 

 the first Abyssinian outpost ; and we received a grand salute 

 from the whole garrison, consisting of five men. The whole 

 district bere was full of gumbot-bush, a deadly poison to 

 camels, as we found to our cost. 



On our way to Gildessa I secured a fully-adult Bateleur 

 Eagle and a very fine Vulture {Otogyps auricularis), mea- 

 suring 9 feet 2 inches between the tips of the wings and 

 standing 42 inches high. 



On arriving at Gildessa itself we found much more bird- 

 life; and our camp was invaded by the lovely dark-blue 

 Starling Lamprocolius chalybeus, with a plumage that shone 

 like diamonds in the sunlight. Here we were able to 

 purchase some riding-mules, a merciful relief to our thin 

 and tired ponies. 



Passing Garrara, where, on one of the lofty volcanic 

 ranges, I was lucky enough to bag a Larger Kudu and a Lesser 

 Kudu on the same day, we came across quantities of monkeys, 

 all the hills seeming to be full of them. We then moved 

 past Ortha andUlfulla, through a wretched country, reaching 

 the banks of the Herrer on December 5th. In the evening 

 the air was darkened by countless flocks of Sand-Grouse 

 coming to drink, the flight only lasting about fifteen minutes. 

 At this place we found the only uncivil native met with on 

 the trip — an independent but powerful chieftain called 

 Toombaccho. This worthy caused us much trouble, espe- 

 cially by looting some of the grain-camels in the rear of 

 our caravan. On Sunday, December 10th, we reached a 

 pretty little lake called Odah, swarming with all kinds of 

 wild-fowl ; and towards evening we tried a drive, sending our 



