380 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xxx 



When the intruder goes away it laughs, and cries : 

 I have told you lies. 



When the ground hornbill is foraging, the hen bird 

 calls to her mate : 



Peep, peep into those holes. 

 The cock replies : 



I have looked, I have looked, there is nothing. 



People with ideas of this kind are not lacking in 

 imagination. -ZEsop was a freed slave, probably an 

 Ethiopian : who can deny that a story-teller with the 

 genius of -ZEsop or of Krylof may not exist in a Nandi 

 village to-day. 



There are sounds made by birds in Eastern Ethiopia 

 which should delight English ears. The diminutive 

 long-tailed dove uttering its plaintive note in the woods 

 of the Kikuyu country and around the lakes of the Rift 

 Valley in the early morning is most delightful. The 

 ringing noises of the touracos in the wood are like 

 human voices. Some of the birds have flute-like notes ; 

 those of the organ shrike denote the neighbourhood of 

 water, and its bell sound makes the listener fancy that 

 a blacksmith is working near at hand. There are many 

 species of larks in the Ethiopian region, and some of 

 them sing. In British East Africa one, known as 

 Fischer's Bush Lark, makes a peculiar noise with its 

 wings. In the breeding-season as the bird soars it 

 produces a peculiar rattling sound. Schillings compares 

 it to the sharp rhythmical clapping sound produced 

 by rattling together small pieces of lath. The sound, 

 audible a long distance, is very deceiving, for it 

 appears to come from a wood near at hand, but the 

 bird is high in the air. 



A bird known as the Coucal, or Lark-heeled Cuckoo 

 (because of the long spur on its hind toe like that of the 

 lark), haunts papyrus swamps. It is clumsy on the wing 



