196 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



colored tree snake, two puff adders, and two seven-foot 

 cobras. One of the latter three times "spat" or ejected its 

 poison at us, the poison coming out from the fangs like white 

 films or threads, to a distance of several feet. A few years 

 ago the singular power of this snake, and perhaps of certain 

 other African species, thus to eject the poison at the face of 

 an assailant was denied by scientists; but it is now well 

 known. Selous had already told me of an instance which 

 came under his own observation; and Tarlton had once been 

 struck in the eyes and for the moment nearly blinded by the 

 poison. He found that to wash the eyes with milk was of 

 much relief. On the bigger puff adder, some four feet long, 

 were a dozen ticks, some swollen to the size of cherries; ap- 

 parently they were disregarded by their sluggish and deadly 

 host. Heller trapped some jackals, of two species; and two 

 striped hyenas, the first we had seen; apparently more timid 

 and less noisy beasts than their bigger spotted brothers. 



One day Kermit had our first characteristic experience 

 with a honey bird; a smallish bird, with its beak like a gros- 

 beak's and its toes like a wood-pecker's, whose extraordinary 

 habits as a honey guide are known to all the natives of Africa 

 throughout its range. Kermit had killed an eland bull, and 

 while he was resting, his gun-bearers drew his attention to 

 the calling of the honey bird in a tree near by. He got up, 

 and as he approached the bird, it flew to another tree in front 

 and again began its twitter. This was repeated again and 

 again as Kermit walked after it. Finally the bird darted 

 round behind his followers, in the direction from which they 

 had come; and for a moment they thought it had played them 

 false. But immediately afterward they saw that it had merely 

 overshot its mark, and had now flown back a few rods to 



