280 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant on Birds 



boys along the water's edge to fire their rifles, while we lay 

 hidden in different corners. After a very large expenditure 

 of cartridges, our bag only resulted in a Goose, four Ducks, 

 a Crane, and an Eagle ! On the 15th we reached a wonderful 

 hot-water spring called Billen, and on the 19th struck the 

 Hawash River and had our first experience with elephants. 

 We shot ten, half of which had poor ivory ; but it was a case 

 of saving our own lives with some difficulty ! I do not ever 

 remember tackling a worse lot of elephants, and the dense 

 hiffh bush made matters all the worse. Our men suffered 

 badly in this neighbourhood from scoi^pion-stings. 



The caravan arrived at Tadechamulka, altitude 3024 feet, 

 on December 27th ; and here we established a main camp, 

 leaving all our camels and men, while we paid a flying visit 

 to the Emperor Menelik. On our journey up to Addis 

 Abbeba we saw very little bird-life, the Aveather being 

 bitterly cold and wet, and as we were at an elevation of 

 over 9000 feet, we found it terribly trying at night. On 

 returning to our main camp I found that Perks had collected 

 about fifty specimens of birds, but many were duplicates of 

 those already obtained, and there was nothing rare among 

 them. 



A week^s hard marching, chiefly along the Hawash 

 Valley, brought us to Gogo, or Buffa Lake, a sheet of water 

 covered with wild-fowl of all sorts, Egyptian Geese being 

 found there in hundreds. Thence we made a side-trip to 

 climb the sacred mountain of Zuquala, over 10,000 feet 

 high. We found Oribi very common there, and added a new 

 Antelope to our bag, viz. the Bohor. On reaching Lake 

 Suai our camels were again badly poisoned through our boys 

 allowing them to feed on the gumbot. Owing to this neglect, 

 we were not only delayed for a week, but lost many of our 

 best young animals — a heavy loss, and one that we could not 

 repair. Game was very plentiful ; enormous herds of Bohor, 

 Hartebeest, and Grant's Gazelle abounded. Working along 

 the chain of lakes we reached and climbed the lofty and fertile 

 hills of Walamo. How lovely the country looked after our 

 weeks of desert and rocky-mountain travel ! We saw many 

 gay-plumaged birds, but how often we longed to hear the 



