CH. XII] HONEY-BIRDS 339 



boys luid left the tree, so as to see exactly what the 

 honey-bird did. The boys had smoked out the bees, 

 and when they left the tree was still smoking. Tiiroiigh- 

 out the process the lioney-bird had stayed quietly in 

 a neiglibouri ng tree, occasionally uttering a single 

 l)ub})ling cluck. As soon as the boys left, it flew 

 straight for the smoking bee tree, uttering a long trill, 

 utterly different from the chattering noise made while 

 trying to attract the attention of the men and lead 

 them to the tree ; and not only did it eat the grubs, 

 but it also ate the bees that were stupefied by the 

 smoke. 



Next day we moved camp to the edge of a swamp 

 about five miles from the river. Near the tents was one 

 of the trees which, not knowing its real name, we called 

 " sausage tree "; the seeds or fruits are encased in a kind 

 of hard gourd, the size of a giant sausage, wliich swings 

 loosely at the end of a long tendril. The swamp was 

 half or three-quarters of a mile across, with one or 

 two ponds in the middle, from which we shot ducks. 

 Francolins — delicious eating, as the ducks were also — 

 uttered their grating calls near by ; while oribi and 

 iiartebeest were usually to be seen from the tents. The 

 liartebeest, by the way, in its three forms, is much the 

 commonest game animal of East Africa. 



A few miles beyond this swamp we suddenly came 

 on a small herd of elephants in the open. There were 

 eight cows and two calves, and they were moving 

 slowly, feeding on the thorny tops of the scattered 

 mimosas and of other bushes which were thornless. 

 The eyesight of elephants is very bad ; 1 doubt whether 

 they see more clearly than a rather near-sighted man ; 

 and Ave walked up to within seventy yards of these, 

 slight though the co\er was, so that Ivermit could try 



