208 TO LAKE NAIVASHA [ch. ix 



lake, and also to the beauty of the river pools, where 

 clumps of them grow under the shade of the vine- 

 tangled tropical trees. 



The open waters of the lagoons were covered with 

 water-lilies, bearing purple or sometimes pink flowers. 

 Across the broad lily-pads ran the curious " hly trotters," 

 or jacanas — richly-coloured birds, with toes so long and 

 slender that the lily-pads support them without sinking. 

 They were not shy, and their varied colouring — a bright 

 chestnut being the most conspicuous hue — and singular 

 habits made them very conspicuous. There was a 

 wealth of bird life in the lagoons. Small gulls, some- 

 what like our black-headed gull, but with their hoods 

 grey, flew screaming around us. Black and white king- 

 fishers, tiny red-billed kingfishers, with colours so 

 brilliant that they flashed like jewels in the sun, and 

 brilliant green bee-eaters, wdth chestnut breasts, perched 

 among the reeds. Spur-winged plover clamoured as they 

 circled overhead, near the edges of the water. Little 

 rails and red-legged water-hens threaded the edges of 

 the papyrus, and grebes dived in the open water. A 

 giant heron, the Goliath, flew up at our approach ; and 

 there were many smaller herons and egrets, white or 

 parti-coloured. There were small, dark cormorants, and 

 larger ones with white throats ; and African ruddy 

 ducks, and teal and big yellow-billed ducks, somewhat 

 like mallards. Among the many kinds of ducks was 

 one which made a whistling noise with its wings as it 

 flew. Most plentiful of all were the coots, much 

 resembling our common bald-pate coot, but with a pair 

 of horns or papillae at the hinder end of the bare frontal 

 space. 



There were a number of hippo in these lagoons. One 

 afternoon, after four o'clock, I saw two standing half out 



