38



Review.



April 9th, 1918.—Jappini. Quite a number of Turtles to-day

on the swamp here. Shooting “ Black Pigeons this evening at the

cattle wells, I dropped a Turtle Dove, and then saw that quite a lot

were about, coming for their evening drink with the other Pigeons.

Three days before I was shooting at the same place—not a Turtle

Dove was there; I got six “Black Pigeons,” and neither saw nor

shot a Turtle. They have evidently just arrived. This adds another

to the South Bank Turtle Dove places.



REVIEW.


LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS*


“ A journey is a short lifetime,” runs the Swahili proverb ;

and the treks described in the book now before us, in their rugged

alternations of torrid day and icy night, black rock and red sand

dune, blazing flower carpets and gaunt groves of dragon aloes, cram

the sensations of months of travel into a few short pages. The book

is full of vivid descriptions—nights spent by the tall flame of a

candle-bush fire alternate with days of blistering heat, and the long-

delayed thunderstorms transform the parched desert to a gay green¬

sward, bright with gazanias and heliophilas.


Aviculturally the Ostrich dominates the book. The drawing

here reproduced vividly recalls the Sahara as we have seen it. The

giant bird-camels stand and stride in a vast landscape, under an

immense dome of sky ; the desert stretches unbroken to the illimi¬

table horizon—it is the very heart of Africa, savage and desolate.

In the strong sunshine the snowy plumes of the Ostriches gleam

brightly against jet-black bodies ; one almost hears the booming of

the cock birds, or the faint yelp of some unseen Jackal.


The author writes (p. 70): “ The plain to the south-west was

dotted with moving Ostriches. Singly, in twos, in threes, in tens,



* 1 Lodges in the Wilderness,’ by W. C. Scully. Illustrated. London: Herbert

Jenkins, Ltd.



