With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



The salt-plain becomes wilder and more desolate,, 

 and poorer in forms of animal life. ( )n]y some "crying 

 lapwings " follow us with their jerky tllght, giving out 

 as they go their strange, soft, melancholy call. We march 

 on for another hour, penetrating further and further into- 

 the desert bv the banks of the marsh ; suddenly, close in 

 front, there peers at us one of. the magnificent, vividly 

 tinted saddle-billed storks [F.phippiorIi\uclius sciicgaLiisis), 

 which almost instantly seeks salvation in flight. Just 

 where the stork's powerful pinions have landed it in 

 safety, two little gazelles are frightened away from the 

 water ; they bound several times to right and left, and 

 then set oft slowly, with measured pace, into the desert,, 

 swaying lightly to and fro. These are Thomson's gazelles 

 {Gazclla thonisoni). They glance inquisiti\'ely over at 

 me ; from time to time they bend their heads as if to 

 eat, only to lift th(;m quickly again. We can now discern 

 in the background, on the wide, level ground, a greater 

 number of these lovely brown creatures, with the pretty 

 black markings on their haunches. They let us get 

 much nearer them, luit then, with their heads stiffly 

 raised, they move oft', very soon breaking into a trot. 



Called to attention bv the tuQ^itive Thomson's o-azelles — 

 the " goilin " of the Mas li — there are now eyeing us a 

 number ot their near relati\'es, the splendid Grant's gazelles. 

 Several teniales are grouped round a magnificent buck, 

 which is decked with lyre-shaped, spreading horns a 

 toot and a half long. These animals take tlight, too, 

 and, changing their direction tVequently, form suddenly 

 into a half-circle round me and my company, so as to- 



568 



