Birds and Flowers 



to feel the want of water, my porters having had 

 to go ten miles to fetch some. About thirty women 

 came into camp, and I heard there was a great 

 war dance on. Evidently the elements did not 

 intend being left out in the cold, as they joined in 

 with a combination of vivid lightning and appalling 

 thunder-claps, followed by a drenching deluge of 

 rain, a small portion of which I collected in my 

 bath for my personal use. 



The next morning was the sixth after my 

 starting from Bombo. Owing to my flat tyre I 

 had to walk the whole of my ten miles to the next 

 camp. There was nothing to shoot on the way, but 

 as the scenery was excellent, resembling very nearly 

 those landscapes so typical of Surrey, and as the 

 sun was obscured by banks of cumulus clouds, it was 

 pleasant enough. Amidst the trees which grew 

 thickly on either side of my path I could distinguish 

 here and there enormous ant heaps, rising some- 

 times twelve to twenty feet, and very noticeable from 

 their reddish-brown colour. There were numerous 

 birds of different species trying to attract attention 

 by the most weird calls. One of them resembled a 

 cork being extracted from a bottle, and was followed 

 by an imitation of the liquid being poured out. 

 Another was exactly like a policeman's whistle. 

 Yet a third demanded "What?" quite plainly, 

 irritating in its repetition. One bird misled me 

 frequently. It had a way of whistling so that I 

 thought it was my Nuby orderly wishing to attract 

 my attention to some buck or game. I may say, 



53 



