156 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



ley's grain-fields, and he was threatening vengeance upon 

 them. I was sorry, for the male birds certainly have habits 

 of peculiar interest. They were not shy, although if we 

 approached too near them in their favorite haunts, the 

 grassland adjoining the papyrus beds, they would fly off 

 and perch on the tops of the papyrus stems. The long 

 tail hampers the bird in its flight, and it is often held at 

 rather an angle downward, giving the bird a peculiar and 

 almost insect-like appearance. But the marked and ex- 

 traordinary peculiarity was the custom the cocks had of 

 dancing in artificially made dancing-rings. For a mile and 

 a half beyond our camp, down the course of the Kamiti, 

 the grassland at the edge of the papyrus was thickly strewn 

 with these dancing-rings. Each was about two feet in di- 

 ameter, sometimes more, sometimes less. A tuft of grow- 

 ing grass perhaps a foot high was left in the centre. Over 

 the rest of the ring the grass was cut off close by the roots, 

 and the blades strewn evenly over the surface of the ring. 

 The cock bird would alight in the ring and hop to a 

 height of a couple of feet, wings spread and motionless, tail 

 drooping, and the head usually thrown back. As he came 

 down he might or might not give an extra couple of little 

 hops. After a few seconds he would repeat the motion, 

 sometimes remaining almost in the same place, at other 

 times going forward during and between the hops so as 

 finally to go completely round the ring. As there were 

 many scores of these dancing-places within a compara- 

 tively limited territory, the effect was rather striking when 

 a large number of birds were dancing at the same time. As 

 one walked along, the impression conveyed by the birds 

 continually popping above the grass and then immediately 

 sinking back, was somewhat as if a man was making peas 

 jump in a tin tray by tapping on it. The favorite dancing 

 times were in the early morning, and, to a less extent, in the 

 evening. We saw dancing-places of every age, some with the 

 cut grass which strewed the floor green and fresh, others with 

 the grass dried into hay and the bare earth showing through. 



