-* By the Njiri Lakes 



marshes and its bearing is very curious and interesting 

 when it knows them or its nest to be in danger. 



With lively, constantly repeated cries it flies high above 

 our heads hither and thither, drops down to the water, 

 stoops its head down on to the surface, and in that position 

 goes from one cluster of weeds to another, and then 

 as far out into the open as the depth of water permits. 

 Thus it infallibly betrays the position of its young. Very 

 interesting it is then to see these swift-winged black-and- 

 white birds, full of anxiety for their offspring, flit from the 

 sand to the cloudless sky or on to the dirty-grey water, 

 made muddy by the flocks of living things. The way 

 in which their long legs hang down adds to the quaint- 

 ness of their appearance. Now the sharp tones of the 

 avocet, have produced commotion in the entire world 

 of birds and a beautiful spur-winged lapwing (Hoplopterus 

 speciosus] decides to make off. 



What a wealth of dazzling light, of majestic isolation, 

 of boundless distance and endless space ! 



Numbers of young avocets not yet able to fly we now 

 see running along inland to save themselves, almost hiding 

 their black-and-white feathers as they scamper over the 

 ground with outstretched necks and beaks ! How white 

 the land here under its coating of salt, as though covered 

 by newly fallen snow ! Where the broad gleaming ponds 

 merge in the deeper waters of the permanent marshes, 

 and clusters of reeds stand up at first sparsely, but 

 gradually become denser and denser, we see every inch 

 of water covered by birds. Among the reeds the notes 

 of small warblers and the curious little marsh-hens 



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