AVith Mashlight and Ritic -^ 



flight ; it turns somersaults in the air, like a tumbler- 

 pigeon, wheels a.bout and up and down, and seems to turn 

 the act ot flight into a game of play, as no other meniber 

 ■of the bird-world that I am accjuainted with can do ! 



In spite of the early hour, a brooding warmth lies 

 over the landscape at the border of this marsh. An 

 abundance of bird-life displays itself with every step we 

 take ; but the ground in the proximity of the marsh-land 

 is alive with young frogs [Rami ///cft/aoos carioisi^). A 

 ■curious worm-like serpent — it looks like a blindworm — 

 {^Mclanoseps afcr) is added to the collection and sent 

 back to camp ; and in another moment we have cut off 

 the retreat of a huge pythoness, about five yards long, 

 trying to escape from us into the thicket. It is killed and 

 forthwith skinned. My little caravan goes forward with 

 vigorous strides. 



Now, suddenlv plungino- forth from a little fen-lake, 

 overgrown with rushes, there comes running towards the 

 velt a herd ot wart-hogs, which we have disturbed at their 

 morning bath. My rifle is handed me; I take aim, fire, 

 and succeed in laying low a straggler which had almost 

 reached the sheltering sueda-thicket in his hasty flight. 



We now proceed without a halt. Numerous hippo- 

 potamus-tracks cross the marshy ground in all directions ; 

 some are treshly made, and point to the passing of an 

 •old beast, with its still quite tiny young ones. These 

 huge marsh-dwellers have, however, betaken themselves 

 long since — with the earliest grey of morning, indeed — 

 to the safe depths of the water. 



A clear, shrill bird-note breaks joyously over the marsh 



566 



