REMINISCENCES TICKS B I RDS 



with us was ticks. They have many kinds and they are 

 all very affectionate. One kind has three interesting 

 stages. At birth it is almost too small to be seen with 

 the naked eye, but it can be felt blindfold. It burns 

 like our sand-flies; it fills itself with blood, and in about 

 four months grows to medium size on that one meal- 

 twice the size of a sand-fly and has four legs. It again 

 fills itself with blood, and in four or five months attains 

 full size and has eight or ten legs. It has two mouths, 

 one on each side of its head or throat. It again fills 

 itself with blood. The female lays its eggs through 

 the thorax on the top of grass stalks, the male fertilizes, 

 and, their mission being completed, they die and leave 

 their nits to continue the circuit. They take the life 

 out of your horses; it is a good sais who can care for one 

 horse so as to keep him in condition, keep him fairly 

 free from these pests. Mosquitoes were few, but suffi- 

 cient to give both Pirie and Cuninghame malignant 

 malaria. Two of our horses died from tsetse-fly before 

 we left, and the other two seemed doomed. 



Centipedes, six or seven inches long, a dark olive 

 green and very poisonous, were plentiful. Scorpions were 

 also numerous and have a tendency to crawl into boot or 

 slipper. I saw pufF-adder, but no hooded cobra, although 

 they abound in the territory where we hunted. One of 

 our horses had a bad leg from scorpion bite, but very 

 little is to be feared from poisonous reptiles; it may be 

 fairly cut out of one's reckoning. 



Birds 



Crane of various kinds were numerous and beautiful; 

 the maribou crane was especially neighborly; scavenger 



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