398 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



which ran lightly over the lily pads. There were cormo- 

 rants and snake birds. Fish eagles screamed as they circled 

 around; very handsome birds, the head, neck, tail, breast, 

 and forepart of the back white, the rest of the plumage black 

 and rich chestnut. There was a queer little eagle owl with 

 inflamed red eyelids. The black and red bulbuls sang noisily. 

 There were many kingfishers, some no larger than chippy 

 sparrows, and many of them brilliantly colored; some had, 

 and others had not, the regular kingfisher voice; and while 

 some dwelt by the river bank and caught fish, others did not 

 come near the water and lived on insects. There were par- 

 adise flycatchers with long, wavy white tails; and olive-green 

 pigeons with yellow bellies. Red-headed, red-tailed lizards 

 ran swiftly up and down the trees. The most extraordinary 

 birds were the nightjars; the cocks carried in each wing one 

 very long, waving plume, the pliable quill being twice the 

 length of the bird's body and tail, and bare except for a patch 

 of dark feather webbing at the end. The two big, dark 

 plume tips were very conspicuous, trailing behind the bird 

 as it flew, and so riveting the observer's attention as to make 

 the bird itself almost escape notice. When seen flying, the 

 first impression conveyed was of two large, dark moths or 

 butterflies fluttering rapidly through the air; it was with a 

 positive effort of the eye that I fixed the actual bird. The 

 big slate and yellow bats were more interesting still. There 

 were several kinds of bats at this camp ; a small dark kind 

 that appeared only when night had fallen and flew very near 

 the ground all night long, and a somewhat larger one, lighter 

 beneath, which appeared late in the evening and flew higher 

 in the air. Both of these had the ordinary bat habits of 

 continuous, swallow-like flight. But the habits of the 



