224 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



ing among the huge yellow trunks of giant thorn-trees, the 

 ground rising sheer on our left as we cantered along the 

 edge of the lake. We passed impalla, tommies, zebra, and 

 wart-hog; and in one place saw three waterbuck cows feed- 

 ing just outside the papyrus at high noon. They belonged 

 to a herd that lived in the papyrus and fed on the grassy 

 flats outside; and their feeding in the open exactly at noon 

 was another proof of the fact that the custom of feeding in 

 the early morning and late evening is with most game en- 

 tirely artificial and the result of fear of man. Birds 

 abounded. Parties of the dark-colored ant-eating wheat- 

 ear sang sweetly from trees and bushes, and even from 

 the roofs of the settlers' houses. The tri-colored starlings 

 black, white, and chestnut sang in the air, as well as 

 when perched on twigs. Stopping at the government farm 

 (which is most interesting; the results obtained in im- 

 proving the native sheep, goats, and cattle by the use of 

 imported thoroughbred bulls and rams have been as- 

 tonishingly successful) we saw the little long-tailed, red- 

 billed, black and white whydahs flitting around the out- 

 buildings as familiarly as sparrows. Water birds of all 

 kinds thronged the meadows bordering the papyrus, and 

 swam and waded among the water-lilies; sacred ibis, her- 

 ons, beautiful white spoonbills, darters, cormorants, Egyp- 

 tian geese, ducks, coots, and water hens. I got up within 

 rifle range of a flock of the queer ibis stork, black and white 

 birds with curved yellow bills, naked red faces, and won- 

 derful purple tints on the edges and the insides of the wings; 

 with the little Springfield I shot one on the ground and 

 another on the wing, after the flock had risen. 



That night Kermit and Dr. Mearns went out with 



