Bird life at Ripon Falls.



39



they were speeding north-eastward over the desert; some on my

right, some to the left. Ever and anon one or another of the groups

halted and its members stood at gaze.”


The tiny “ Kapok Vogeltje,” twittering on its snowball-like

nest, also appears in these pages ; we read how “ the Chanting

Falcons swooped from their cliff eyries and filled the morning with

wild music ”; we almost hear the cries of the Sand Grouse falling

from the night sky “ like a rain of echoes.” This book should

certainly be read by all — whether professed aviculturists or not —

who wish to learn something of the avifauna of Great Bushmanland.


Turning to errors, there are no Pheasants in Africa, in spite

of the statement made on p. 210 and repeated on p. 214. In general

zoology the author is shaky. There are no true “desert Gazelles” in

South-West Africa (p. 22). The Springbok is by no means “really a

Gazelle” (p. 230), its erectile dorsal scut and molar teeth being quite

enough to distinguish it. The Gemsbok is not the only Antelope — or

even the only Oryx Antelope — with a reversed mane, this peculiarity

being shared by the Beisa and Fringe-eared Oryxes, to say nothing

of the Beatrix Oryx of Arabia. We do not agree that Rhinoceroses

have “ disappeared ” from the Bushman Desert, for we fail to see

how they can have ever lived there, since those animals must drink

every day. Surely no experienced aviculturist could confuso the

booming of a cock Ostrich with the deep-toned roar of a Lion.


G. R.



BIRD LIFE AT RIPON FALLS.*


By Norma Lorimer.


When I turned my eyes from the Falls and looked up the

blue lake I could see crocodiles sunning themselves on a smooth

island rock which served them as a sort of divan.


* lleprinted from ‘ By the Waters of Africa,’ by Norma Lorimer, reviewed in the

‘ Avic. Mag.,’ March, l'J18.



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