CHAPTER VII 



After Hargeisa — The roller and his colouring — Shootmg lesser bustard with 

 a rifle — A good dhero — Striped hyoena — The second of August : Cressd 

 dies nold : a troop of lions : two lionesses shot — After the lions again : 

 bag three more — Good tracking — Success of the Paradox. 



The day after leaving Hargeisa I had a fair amount 

 of exercise after some gerenuk which were wild. By 

 midday we had covered a good deal of ground and sat 

 down to wait for Abdilleh with the caravan. But it 

 did not come, so I ate a biscuit and presently lay 

 down under a tree for a snooze while Elmi went off to 

 look for them. At 2 p.m. he returned to say the 

 caravan had halted four miles back, they had been 

 delayed by the misbehaviour of two camels and we 

 had overrun them. There was no point in going back, 

 the caravan would be starting again directty, so I lit 

 a pipe and waited, watching a pair of rollers (the so- 

 called " blue jay ") in a tree near by. 



I think few colour effects in Nature are more 

 striking on a small scale than that produced by the 

 roller, when he starts to fly, and from beneath his un- 

 assuming cloak there flashes out a pair of wings whose 

 bars of purest turquoise contrast with a beautiful deep 

 blue that in some lights is almost violet. Why this 

 sudden change and display ? It may be suggested 

 that the dulhiess of the roller's plumage when at rest 

 is protective, but apart from the fact that theories of 

 colour protection have been ^pushed to ridiculous 



