TWO BIRDS 121 



and guinea-fowl for the pot, or of catching moths by 

 lamplight. The skies of mid-Africa are an unending 

 joy, not less by night than by day. I have seen as 

 many as seven thunderstorms going on at once, and 

 I can hardly recall a single night when there was 

 not a flicker of lightning to be seen low down over 

 some part of the horizon. 



There are two birds, which will live in my memory 

 long after I have forgotten everything else about 

 Muhokya. One is the Bateleur Eagle, which may be 

 called the first-class cruiser among birds ; for power 

 and swiftness of flight there is none that can compare 

 with it. With its long wings and curious stunted 

 tail it looks more like a huoe bat than a bird as 



o 



it sails high overhead, never flapping its wings, but 

 giving just an occasional tilt from one side to the 

 other. One moment it is here and the next it is 

 a speck almost out of sight across the plain. The 

 other is a very remarkable species of Nightjar,^'' in 

 which some of the feathers of the wing, particularly 

 the second primary, are enormously lengthened : the 

 lonoest that was measured had a lenorth of 2 1 inches. 

 These birds sleep during the day in warm places on 

 the hill-sides until sunset, when they fly down to the 

 low ground about the lake. The long feathers 

 trailing out like streamers behind them give the 

 birds a most unnatural appearance, as if they had 

 four wings ; but though one would expect the long 

 feathers to be rather an encumbrance than other- 

 * Cosmetornis vexillaviiis. 



