Birds from British East Africa. 521 



the trees, and I was able to get out of the boat and 

 climb about amongst the nests. "When I did so, the old 

 Cormorants flew anxiously overhead and the young birds 

 " cawed " loudly, while a flock of eight or ten White 

 Egrets and some Ibises kept hovering near, furious at the 

 invasion of their sanctuary. I believe that it has never been 

 satisfactorily determined whether there are any fishes or not 

 in Naivasha : none of the fish-eating birds which I shot 

 there — i.e., Herons, Cormorants, Kingfishers, and Pelicans — 

 ever contained fishes in their stomachs, but remains of 

 frogs, four or five species of which are very common in 

 the Lake ; and though I looked most carefully, and tried 

 with nets and lines, I never could catch or see any sign 

 offish ; and yet it seems inconceivable that such vast numbers 

 of large birds should subsist entirely on frogs, neither does 

 it seem likely that they go to another place for their food. 

 My idea is that the fish keep to the deep pools in the 

 middle of the lake, and so are seldom seen, and that therefore 

 it is supposed that there are none ; but it seems strange 

 that none of the inhabitants of the locality should ever have 

 seen one, dead or alive. 



169. Plotus levaillanti. African Darter. 



Plotus levaillanti Licht. 



Iris brown ; bill dusky brown ; legs black. 



Darters were common on the Athi and the Thika, and I 

 had many opportunities of watching these most quaint birds. 

 Their habit of sitting on a rock with wings extended, basking 

 in the sun, is well known ; but sometimes they lie flat down 

 on their breasts with wings spread out, as if to get still more 

 sun. Their flight is rather strong and very rapid ; and 

 I think that they feed almost entirely by night. On one 

 occasion, while watching an individual sitting on a sloping 

 rock in the river, I was much amused to see a large turtle 

 crawl up on to the stone and, with head and neck stretched 

 out, look most comically at the apparently unsuspecting 

 Darter ; gaining confidence, it advanced further, and literally 

 pushed the unoff"ending bird ofi". 



