ZOOLOGY 411 



The jigger, or l)urio\viiig Hea, has reached Uganda from the west 

 coast of Africa in its migration across tlie continent. Two or three years 

 ago this pest was becoming very serious, as numbers of the natives were 

 permanently lamed by its attacks on their feet, or even lost their lives 

 from the mortification which followed jigger wounds. But, as in British 

 Central Africa, the jigger has recently decreased in numbers, l)eing 

 apparently kept down by the heavy rainfall. Europeans who take reason- 

 alile care of themselves scarcely suffer to any extent from its attacks, 

 and tlie natives are now becoming very adroit and careful in removing the 

 jigger soon after this little female flea settles herself under the skin. 



The greater part of the Protectorate has been visited yearly for some 

 time past by ravaging flocks of locusts. These do not seriously damage 

 the well-forested countries that are covered with rich vegetation, but thev 

 cause positive famines in the drier districts, where they eat up food crops. 

 Tills locust, as already noted in the book, is the Pachytylns mirjratorioides 

 of tlie Sahara Desert and Arabia. Increase of population and human 

 settlement over the whole country is the only sure way of counteracting 

 the attacks of these locusts, unless they are exterminated in their original 

 home, the desert regions in the northern half of Africa.* If a countrv is 

 densely ])opulated, however, the noise made by the people distracts the 

 locusts and drives them off. They may in this manner be skilfuUv driven 

 towards the waters of some considerable lake, like one of the Nyanzas. 

 When they attempt to fly across a large sheet of water, they nearlv always 

 fall from exhaustion after a few miles' journey, and are drowned in the 

 waters of the lake. This fact has made such an impression on the 

 natives of Uganda that the Albert P>dward and Albert Nyanzas ai'e each 

 called the Killer of Locusts (Luta Nzige or Muta Nzige). Moreover, if 

 steady protection is accorded to all the larger insect-eating birds, and to 

 hawks, kites, storks, and cranes, a hundred agencies will exist by which 

 quantities of these abominable insects may be devoured. 



In all the country below 7,000 feet in altitude termites (" wliite ants") 

 of several different genera are present, and the termite hill is one of the 

 commonest objects in all Uganda landscapes. The extraordinary ant-hills 

 which are raised in the Baringo and Kudolf Districts I have already 

 illustrated. In many countries the surface of the prairie-land is dotted 

 with innumerable mounds which are all raised by termites, and give the 

 earth's skin the a})pearance of being pimpled. 



Mantises and stick insects, cockroaches, and crickets are to the full 

 as wonderful and repulsive in their develo}>ments as elsewhere in Africa. 

 The stick insects may reach quite twelve inches in .length, and their 



* Where experiments, similar to those made in Natal, of inoculating captured 

 insects with a fungoid disease, might well be tried. 



