2 10 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



fastidious palates. Again, contrary to general 

 belief, they have a small swallow in proportion to 

 their size, so that the degeneration of the con- 

 stituent parts of a body very materially facilitates 

 digestion. This penchant, as may well be imagined, 

 sometimes leads to fearful battles for the posses- 

 sion of a decomposing carcass, which doubtlessly 

 accounts for so many of these reptiles being dis- 

 figured by fearful scars, or, not unfrequently, the 

 loss of a foot, or a portion of their tails. 



As we float downwards the nature of the banks 

 becomes very much changed, for dense beds of reeds, 

 often a hundred yards deep, margin the water, a 

 certain haunt for buffalo and rhinoceros during the 

 heat of the mid-day sun. As I fire shot after shot 

 at the crocodiles, such immense flocks of birds arise 

 from these water-loving plants as to darken the sky 

 by their density and numbers. In their flight there 

 is something familiar to me, and recalls very different 

 scenes and associations. Yes ! there can be no 

 mistake, they are starlings, and, as far as I can at that 

 moment judge, identical with our home beauties. 



In Cumberland, both at Greysouthen and 

 Whitefield, where I was in the habit of spending my 

 juvenile holidays, enormous flocks of these birds used 

 to haunt the adjoining plantations. In my boyish 

 imagination, I used to think there was no place 

 on earth that could show similar scenes, but they 

 were not a patch on the hordes that now rose from 



