BRITISH EAST AFRICA 181 



light ; of the soft jugging note of some bird hidden in 

 the leafy depths of the forest ; of the little steinbuck 

 which sneaked off among the grasses, looking very 

 much ashamed of their abnormal hind-quarters and 

 tiny heads ; of the shimmering line of zebra, now 

 white, now grey, then a vision of black and white 

 curved stripes and flickering hoofs seen through a 

 curtain of dust ; and of the secretary-bird, who 

 stalked sedately away at our approach, looking for all 

 the world like a broken-down dominie with a bundle 

 of old quills behind his bald pate and his thin sticks 

 of legs encased in tightly fitting black trousers. 



But the greatest joy of all came as we crossed a flat 

 grassy expanse dotted with thorn scrub which smiled 

 deceitfully at us under a cloud of white blossom. 

 Something moved, and before I had time to utter an 

 exclamation a couple of blue-grey unwieldy masses 

 lumbered noiselessly off within forty yards of us. 

 Had I not felt the heavy tremor of their departure be- 

 neath my feet I should have been tempted to fancy 

 them the offspring of a too keen imagination, but a 

 couple of rhinos they undoubted were though it took 

 me some moments to realise the fact. That was my 

 first introduction to them in a state of nature, but 

 the novelty of their appearance never quite wore off. 



If the Rocky Mountain goat and the moose appear 

 prehistoric, what can be said of the fauna of Africa ? 

 The elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, all look as if they 

 had drifted down to us, the surviving remnants of a 

 strange age which we can but dimly reconstruct, to 



