A BUFFALO HUNT BY THE KAMITI 



155 



the muscles under the skin. The very young fawns of the 

 kongoni seemed to have little fear of a horseman, if he ap- 

 proached while they were lying motionless on the ground; 

 but they would run from a man on foot. 



There were interesting birds, too. Close by the woods 

 at the river's edge, we saw a big black ground hornbill 

 walking about, on the lookout for its usual dinner of small 

 snakes and lizards. Large flocks of the beautiful Kavirondo 



\Vliydali birds' dancing-ring 

 From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt 



cranes stalked over the plains and cultivated fields, or flew 

 by with mournful, musical clangor. But the most interest- 

 ing birds we saw were the black whydah finches. The 

 female is a dull-colored, ordinary-looking bird, somewhat 

 like a female bobolink. The male in his courtship dress is 

 clad in a uniform dark glossy suit, and his tail-feathers 

 are almost like some of those of a barn-yard rooster, being 

 over twice as long as the rest of the bird, with a downward 

 curve at the tips. The females were generally found in 

 flocks, in which there would often be a goodly number of 

 males also, and when the flocks put on speed the males 

 tended to drop behind. The flocks were feeding in Heat- 



