( FK VI] HABITS OF KAVIRONDO CRANES lai 



grassland at the edge of the papyrus was thickly strewn 

 with these dancing-rings. Each was about two feet in 

 diameter, sometimes more, sometimes less. A tuft of 

 growing grass, perha])s a foot high, was left in the 

 centre. Over the rest of the ring the grass was cut off 

 close by the roots, and the blades strewn evenly over 

 the surface of the ring. The cock bird would alight in 

 the ring and liop to a height of a couple of feet, wings 

 spread and motionless, tail drooping, and the head 

 usually thrown back. As he came down he might or 

 might not give an extra couple of little hops. After a 

 few seconds he would repeat the motion, sometimes 

 remaining almost in the same place, at other times 

 going forward during and between the hops so as finally 

 I to go completely round the ring. As there were many 

 > scores of these dancing-places within a comparatively 

 limited territory, the effect was rather striking when a 

 ' large nimiber of birds were dancing at the same time. 

 I As one walked along, the impression conveyed by the 

 birds continually popping above the grass and then 

 immediately sinking back was somewhat as if a man 

 ■ was making peas jump in a tin tray by tapping on it. 

 ! The favourite dancing times were in the early morning, 

 I and, to a less extent, in the evening. W^e saw dancing- 

 places of every age, some with the cut grass which 

 ( strewed the floor green and fresh, others with the grass 

 dried into hay and the bare earth showing through. 

 j But the game we were after was the buffalo herd that 

 i haunted the papyrus swamp. As I have said before, 

 the buffalo is by many hunters esteemed the most 

 dangerous of African game. It is an enormously 

 powerful beast with, in this country, a coat of black 

 I hair, which becomes thin in the old bulls, and massive 

 J horns, which rise into great bosses at the base, these 



