MOZAMBIQUE TERRITORY (II) 43 
fish which are trapped as the flood waters subside. Then as the 
water in these depressions evaporates and becomes shallow, the 
fish are killed by the great heat. I saw one such place surrounded 
by marabou storks and it was quite a revolting spectacle. Putrid 
fish were floating everywhere on the water and the marabous— 
themselves revolting-looking creatures—were devouring the stink- 
ing offal with much relish. As scavengers, of course, they were 
serving a very useful purpose. 
The natives here were clever at trapping water-birds, and among 
other things we were brought a variety of herons. These were not 
very difficult to accustom to an artificial diet, though to encourage 
them to eat in the first instance we employed small boys to catch 
the tree-frogs which were numerous in the banana plantations. 
Where the banana leaf joins the stem there is a cavity which is 
always moist or filled with water, and this is the ideal place for 
these highly colored creatures to shelter from the heat and their 
diurnal enemies. They issue forth at night, clinging to smooth 
leaves and stems with great facility owing to nature’s provision 
of toes with suction pads instead of claws, and then music is in 
the air; in fact their incessant chirruping is one of the most 
unforgettable things of the tropical night. 
We also acquired three quaint birds of the heron order, known 
as hammerkops. Their peculiar appearance has given rise to many 
superstitions in different native tribes. They have somber plumage, 
and spend most of their time along watercourses catching small 
fish, crabs, etc., and have little fear of man; in fact where the 
natives are concerned the boot is on the other foot. They build a 
nest, which is an enormous mound of sticks, usually on a boulder 
overhanging a river though sometimes in a tree. The nest may 
be six feet in diameter and is dome-shaped, with the entrance hole 
on one side. Many are the legends of the hammerkop. On one 
occasion I went to a place to investigate the natives’ story that 
there existed a “one-eyed” bird in the district. They all agreed 
that the bird possessed only one eye—not that this convinced me 
in any way. However, I was determined to get to the bottom of 
the story, and after much hedging by the locals I was reluctantly 
shown a specimen of the hammerkop. When I pointed out, with 
some sarcasm, that the bird had two eyes like any other bird, they 
