Chapter Six 
MOZAMBIQUE TERRITORY (III) 
Y third trip to Portuguese East Africa was again with my 
brother. This was in 1928. 
On this occasion we went to the Siluvu Hills some sixty-five 
miles inland from Beira. This group of quaint-looking high stony 
kopjes, situated on the western extremity of the vast and swampy 
Pungwe flats, is in a district that was then subject to much malaria 
and blackwater fever. The kopjes were well wooded with thick 
undergrowth, and abounded with leopards, baboons, and mon- 
keys. An unusual feature of these hills was that in the dry season 
there was a total lack of water; in fact, the nearest water-hole was 
some ten miles away in the plains, and was certainly never visited 
by the monkeys and baboons. 
By day the heat was intense but the early morning revealed 
heavy dews, and it is possible that various mammals were able to 
quench their thirst by this medium. Access to drinking water is 
something that most people regard as a necessity for the survival 
of most forms of animal-life, especially in the tropics, but this is a 
fallacy. A number of birds, and some mammals, never or rarely 
drink in the wild state, for example bee-eaters, hornbills, and cer- 
tain sub-desert gazelles. These creatures get sufficient moisture 
from the food they eat, whether it be insects, fruit or vegetation. 
Of the various bee-eaters I have kept, I have never known one to 
drink, and unlike some non-drinkers they never acquire the habit 
in captivity. Here in the Siluvu Hills was a wealth of bird-life so 
restricted to this habitat that it would never venture on to the open 
plain, and was therefore cut off from any water supply. Our own 
water came from a well. 
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