With Flashlig-ht and Rifle ^ 



the latter, among which "natural selection" has for so 

 lono- been more or less repressed. The African native, 

 too, displa\s incredible powers of recuperation, and 

 after the severest wounds he produces "sound flesh" at 

 a rate which must be the envy of every European and 

 the adniiration of the surgeon ! 



In the further pursuit of the gnu we come at every 

 step upon fresh representatives of the ornithology of the 

 marsh ; the curious umbrettes {Sc'o/y//s unihrctta) Hy lightly 

 about us. Pretty little black marsh-towl {Ortygoiuctra 

 pusi/Ia ohsciira) slip in and out of the sedge-growth at 

 our feet (juickl)' hiding themsehes from observation. 

 Splendid snow-white egrets investigate the strange looks 

 of their human visitors, and then instantly retire into safety. 

 With a warning cackle, some Egyptian geese {Chciia/opex 

 (ri^vpfiaciis) fly off to the open water ; the strangely shaped 

 little parra flutters up between the reeds, visible for a 

 nioment only. But in the drier parts our steps are haunted 

 continuallv by little male birds belonging to that beautiful 

 species the black-and-white "crying lapwing." Each couple 

 of this particular kind of lapwing rules at this season over 

 a certain well-dehned district, its own little kingdom, 

 from which it jealously dri\-es away all rivals. Every- 

 where within this tiny realm the little hens are hatching 

 their prettily spotted eggs. This accounts for the anxiety 

 and suspicion of the cocks. 



Now, again, the dry desert receives us, and going- 

 through plantations of salvadora, acacia, and terminalia, 

 we reach a part of the velt which, here and there at 

 least, affords a little covert. But the gnu. which has 



572 



