554 Mr. B. Alexander — An OrnithoJugical 



The crocodile soon learns to know these spots and, watching Ms 

 opportunity, journeys up the river for two or three hundred 

 yards and then creeps out on to the sand, whose colour 

 assimilates well with his body. In a very short time he has 

 executed a detour and is behind his victim, and with one 

 whisk of his powerful tail the woman is in the water and he 

 after her. I once witnessed an example of this. A piercing 

 cry made me turn my eyes in the direction whence it came, 

 when I saw a woman struggling in the water and a crocodile 

 just disappearing after her. The Portuguese commandant 

 at Znmbo, to whom I mentioned the incident, said that the 

 crocodile often resorts to the tactics I have just described. 



There is a considerable sameness about the Zambesi 

 scenery, but now and again there are localities of great 

 beauty. The Lupata gorge, below Tete, and the three 

 lupatas above Zumbo, are good examples. At these places 

 the river is deep and devoid of sandbanks, flowing swiftly 

 through steep rocky hills, clothed up to their summits 

 with trees, among which the giant baobabs with their stout 

 arms stand out conspicuously. Beyond these lupatas or 

 gorges the scenery again becomes ordinary, the hills recede 

 into the background, leaving stretches of flat country dotted 

 over with groves and clumps of tall acacia-trees, while a 

 " chia,^^ or native village, with its kraals of mud walls and 

 straw roofs, standing in the midst of marpela-fields, frequently 

 meets the eye. On the rocky volcanic hills and stony soil 

 the woods are composed of Copaifera mopane, whose leaves 

 turn a russet-red in autumn and a beautiful tender green in 

 spring. These woods are extremely monotonous and silent, 

 and one may go for several miles without seeing any sign of 

 bird-life, and then suddenly come across a party of birds 

 — Finches, Flycatchers, Shrikes, and Tits, all congregated 

 together and threading their way through the woodland, 

 appearing just as if one had accidentally struck one of their 

 highways to some favourite locality. 



Beyond Zumbo the soil becomes less stony and richer, 

 consequently the woods are thick and in many places become 

 dense forest. 



