KENYA (1) 125 
Aberdare Mountains over roads which might be described as 
typically colonial. 
Lake Naivasha was a beautiful sight and its shores were teeming 
with bird-life, the giant acacia trees affording a home for Blue- 
eared Glossy Starlings and Superb Starlings, which were both 
exceedingly numerous. Red-billed Wood-hoopoes and White- 
fronted Bee-eaters were also common here, but the only sunbird 
I saw close to the lake was Falkenstein’s Buft-breasted, which is 
extremely beautiful with its shining blue upper parts and breast 
and light buff belly. On the water Red-knobbed Coots were in 
hundreds, while in the reeds and among the water-lilies the 
African Jacana or Lily-trotter and the Black Crake could be seen 
or heard. Waders were also fairly plentiful, being mostly migrant 
sandpipers from Europe, and the beautiful Blacksmith Plover was 
there sparingly; ducks were getting scarce, as within recent years 
there had been a boom in land sales round the edge of the lake, 
and houses were springing up everywhere, thus disturbing a de- 
lightful beauty spot which was once more or less a natural 
sanctuary. Shooting was rapidly becoming the order of the day. 
The country between the lake and escarpment, some ten miles 
across and known as the Karati Bush, was more interesting, and 
after a good deal of exploring one could get glimpses of that 
charming bird the Purple Grenadier Waxbill, which belongs to 
the same genus as the Violet-eared Waxbill from South Africa, 
but is even more beautiful. These may sometimes be seen in semi- 
bare places in the bush, apparently pecking in the soil. There are 
no seeding grasses in such places, and probably never were, and 
it can only be concluded that they are eating minute wind-borne 
seeds, which are more easily found where the ground is bare. 
In the tropics, where the hot air is constantly causing miniature 
whirlwinds, dust and small seeds and leaves, etc., are carried high 
into the skies, and in this way the small dust-like seeds of many 
weeds travel tremendous distances. This is particularly noticeable 
where a clearing has been made in the middle of a big forest, 
where under ordinary circumstances none of these weeds and 
plants can grow, but immediately there is sufficient air and light 
they spring up in a few days, although there may be no similar 
things growing within many miles. It has been recorded that, after 
