TO LAKE NAIVASHA 269 



abounded. Parties of the dark-colored ant-eating wheat- 

 ear sang sweetly from trees and bushes, and even from 

 the roofs of the settlers' houses. The tricolored starlings 

 black, white, and chestnut sang in the air, as well as 

 when perched on twigs. Stopping at the government farm 

 (which is most interesting; the results obtained in im- 

 proving the native sheep, goats, and cattle by the use of 

 imported thoroughbred bulls and rams have been astonish- 

 ingly successful) we saw the little long-tailed, red-billed, 

 black and white whydahs flitting around the out-build- 

 ings as familiarly as sparrows. Water birds of all kinds 

 thronged the meadows bordering the papyrus, and swam 

 and waded among the water-lilies ; sacred ibis, herons, 

 beautiful white spoonbills, darters, cormorants, Egyptian 

 geese, ducks, coots, and water-hens. I got up within rifle 

 range of a flock of the queer ibis stork, black and white 

 birds with curved yellow bills, naked red faces, and won- 

 derful purple tints on the edges and the insides of the 

 wings; with the little Springfield I shot one on the ground 

 and another on the wing, after the flock had risen. 



That night Kermit and Dr. Mearns went out with 

 lanterns and shot-guns, and each killed one of the spring- 

 haas, the jumping hares, which abounded in the neigh- 

 borhood. These big, burrowing animals, which progress 

 by jumping like kangaroos, are strictly nocturnal, and their 

 eyes shine in the glare of the lanterns. 



Next day I took the Fox gun, which had already on 

 ducks, guinea-fowl, and francolin shown itself an excep- 

 tionally hard-hitting and close-shooting weapon, and col- 

 lected various water birds for the naturalists; among others, 

 a couple of Egyptian geese. I also shot a white pelican 

 with the Springfield rifle; there was a beautiful rosy flush 

 on the breast. 



Here we again got news of the outside world. While 

 on safari the only newspaper which any of us ever saw was 

 the Owego Gazette, which Loring, in a fine spirit of neigh- 

 borhood loyalty, always had sent to him in his mail. To 



