426 RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO [ch. xiv 



some in a grove of fairly big acacias, but they instantly 

 dropped to the earth and galloped off' among the dry, 

 scattered bushes and small thorn-trees. Kermit also 

 shot a twelve-foot crocodile in which he found the 

 remains of a big heron. 



One morning we saw from camp a herd of elephants 

 in a piece of unburned swamp. It was a mile and a 

 half away in a straight line, although we had to walk 

 three miles to get there. There were between forty 

 and fifty of them, a few big cows with calves, the rest 

 half-grown and three-quarters-grown animals. Over a 

 hundred white herons accompanied them. From an 

 ant-hill to leeward we watched them standing by a mud 

 hole in the swamp ; evidently they now and then got a 

 whiff" from our camp, for they were coiitinually hfting 

 and curling their trunks. To see if by any chance there 

 was a bull among them we moved them out of the 

 swamp by shouting. The wind blew hard, and as they 

 moved they evidently smelled the camp strongly, for all 

 their trunks went into the air ; and off' they went at a 

 rapid pace, half of the herons riding on them, while 

 the others hovered over and alongside, like a white 

 cloud. Two days later the same herd again made its 

 appearance. 



Spur-winged plover were nesting near camp, and 

 evidently distrusted the carrion feeders, for they attacked 

 and drove off' every kite or vulture that crossed what 

 they considered the prohibited zone. They also harassed 

 the marabous, but Math more circumspection ; for the 

 big storks were short-tempered, and rather daunted the 

 spurwings by the way they opened their enormous beaks 

 at them. The fish eagles fed exclusively on fish, as far 

 as we could tell, and there were piles of fish-bones and 

 heads under their favourite perches. Once I saw one 



