ONE AFRICAN DAY 203 



of East Africa is Fischer's Bush-Lark (Mirafra 

 fischeri), which is common both in the Kedong 

 and the open country to the south of the southern 

 Gwas N'yro. 1 In November it makes an interesting 

 flight courtship, which I have often witnessed soon 

 after dawn. The bird soars up into the air to 

 300 feet, and then makes two or three falls, and 

 rises again before descending in headlong dive 

 to the summit of a tree, much after the manner 

 of our Tree-Pipit. During this flight the bird 

 makes a curious rattling noise when on the upgrade, 

 the sound being audible at a great distance. 2 



The day was just beginning, so I left Pullar 

 and Judd to hunt along the river, which was the 

 best chance for lions, and went south out into the 

 park-like country to view the quantities of game 

 I had seen the evening before, in the hope of getting 

 a good head or two of some of the Antelopes. 

 We all wish to get good specimens, and this looking 

 for exceptional ones where game is abundant 

 has in itself a great charm, for, as numbers are 

 passed in review, it is wonderful how soon one can 

 appreciate the additional inch or two of horn that 

 constitutes the desirable trophy. Record heads 

 are generally obtained by flukes, often without 

 any special skill on the part of the hunter, and 

 occur even to the experienced just once or twice 

 in a lifetime, but when animals are really as abun- 

 dant as they are here, it is necessary to be selective, 

 and not shoot at any beast that just for the moment 

 seems to carry good horns. There are hundreds 



1 I have also seen it in Mashonaland. 



2 A diagram of this flight is well figured in my friend Abel 

 Chapman's On Safari, p. 333. 



