134 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



quarter of a mile up stream in full view ; halt ; join in a 

 chorus of barking, yelping, and baying ; suddenly pull up in 

 the middle of the concert, and dash at the top of their speed, 

 absolutely mute, out of sight on a lower level, to the point they 

 had started from, jump into the water and swim across, selling 

 the alligators, who, hungry after their 'course of bark,' were 

 eagerly expecting their dinner at the spot where they had had 

 the largest dose. Whether this was eyes or ears, or both, I could 

 not make out. One beast has wits, another power ; and so the 

 balance is pretty fairly kept. 



While still in the desert, during our first trip, Livingstone 

 called my attention to a wonderful bit of instinct in a bird 

 he mentions it in his works, but it is worth telling a second 

 time. We had been a couple of days without water, and I was 

 enjoying watching the cattle swell themselves out in a chance 

 thunder-shower pond we had just come to, and sitting dabbling 

 my feet, when to me the dear old Doctor, ' I say, what do you 

 think is the greatest proof of conjugal affection you ever knew ? ' 

 ' Go along, I'm not occupied with such matters.' ' Don't be 

 cross; come here. Do you see the chink in that tree, and that 

 large horn-billed bird going backwards and forwards to it? 

 What do you think he's doing ? ' ' Oh, making a fool of him- 

 self generally.' ' No, he's feeding his wife and his children, 

 who are shut in behind it.' And it was so: The ornithological 

 name of the bird I don't know, but he's something between 

 a toucan and a hornbill, neither one nor the other, about the 

 size of a large pigeon, though, if I remember right, more like 

 a woodpecker in build. After marriage the birds select a hole 

 in a tree, and gather a few sticks for a nest ; the hen takes 

 some feathers off her breast to line it and lays her eggs. \Vhen 

 this is done, and incubation begins, the male bird goes to the 

 nearest pond, and brings wet clay, with which he stops up the 

 hole at which his wife went in, leaving one narrow opening in 

 the centre, and through this the excellent fellow feeds mamma 

 and little ones, until the latter are fledged and ready to leave 

 the nest, then he and she, from outside and in, jointly peck 



