156 TREKKING [ch. vii 



nesting in burrows on the open plains round about. 

 Mearns got a white egg and a nest at the end of a Httle 

 burrow two feet long ; wounded, the birds ran into 

 holes or burrows. They sang attractively on the wing, 

 often at night. The plover-like coursers — very pretty 

 birds — continually circled round us with querulous 

 clamour. Gorgeously coloured, diminutive sunbirds, of 

 many different kinds, were abundant ; they had an 

 especial fondness for the gaudy flowers of the tall mint 

 which grew close to the river. We got a small cobra, 

 less than eighteen inches long ; it had swallowed another 

 snake almost as big as itself ; unfortunately the head of 

 the swallowed snake was digested, but the body looked 

 like that of a young puff-adder. 



The day after reaching this camp 1 rode off for a 

 hunt, accompanied by my two gun-bearers and with a 

 dozen porters following, to handle whatever 1 killed. 

 One of my original gun-bearers, Mahomet, though a 

 good man in the field, had proved in other respects so 

 unsatisfactory that he had been replaced by another, a 

 Wakamba heathen named Gouvimali. I could not 

 remember his name until, as a mnemonic aid, Kermit 

 suggested that 1 think of Gouverneur Morris, the old 

 Federalist statesman, whose life 1 had once studied. 

 He was a capital man for the work. 



Half a mile from camp I saw a buck tommy with a 

 good head, and as we needed his delicious venison for 

 our own table, I dismounted, and after a little care 

 killed him, as he faced me at two hundred and ten 

 yards. Sending him back by one of the porters, I rode 

 on toward two topi we saw far in front. But there 

 were zebra, hartebeest, and wildebeest in between, all 

 of which ran ; and the topi proved wary. I was still 

 walking after them when we made out two eland bulls 



