ONE AFRICAN DAY 199 



mellifluous bubbling notes. The sound is one 

 that gets into the African traveller's mind and 

 remains with him long after he has left the land 

 of sunshine. Another dawn sound is the flapping 

 of Fischer's Bush Lark, as he mounts into the 

 heavens in aerial display to charm his mate. 



Then in the grey dawn wherever you go great 

 ghost-like forms of large vultures pass and vanish 

 amid the shadows, and in the Sotik country troops 

 of the white Wood Ibis (Pseudo-tantalus ibis), 

 with its curved orange bill and red face, float by 

 on their way to search for food, whilst a rush of 

 swiftly beaten pinions overhead reminds you of 

 home, when the Teal or Mallard are in flight, though 

 here it is the African Mallard (Anas undulata), 

 Pintail, or Shoveller on the move. When more 

 light comes, a common sound throughout the 

 forest and river country is the loud chatter of a 

 pair of Barbets as they meet and greet one another. 

 It is like nothing but the noise made by an old 

 cartwheel that wants greasing. 



If one wished to collect or study birds in this 

 wonderful region, the best way to see them, especi- 

 ally all the small species, is to select a single tree 

 apart from the rest, and yet standing in the line 

 of trees that fringe a water-course. All perching 

 birds here seem to have a habit of following the 

 course of a river or donga, and sooner or later they 

 will come to you. 



One morning I counted twenty-two different 

 species of perching birds that alighted in the branches 

 of a thorn-tree over my head, and though many of 

 the species were unknown to me, I noticed Lesser 

 Kestrel (Cerchnois naumanni), Malachite King- 



