MISCELLANEOUS BIRDS 49 



trary, they will go straight ahead for fifty or one hundred 

 yards, alight, and repeat the manoeuvre as soon as the 

 hunter again comes up to them. This sort of thing may 

 go on indefinitely, and needless to say every wild animal 

 within sight or hearing has its head up, looking and 

 listening to learn what the trouble is about. Apart from 

 their unmelodious call, and their lack of sympathy with 

 the sportsman, they are deserving birds, and great des- 

 troyers of grasshoppers and other insects. 



THE SNAKE BIRD. This curious and solitary bird may 

 occasionally be seen by the margins of African rivers, 

 lakes, and pools, into the waters of which it dives in 

 pursuit of the fish which form its food. It has a curiously 

 long and flexible neck, which it can twist in all directions, 

 and which has conferred on it its English name. When 

 swimming, the head and neck alone protrude above the 

 surface and look at a distance exactly like a snake as 

 they undulate backwards and forwards with every stroke. 

 The bird can remain about five minutes under water, and 

 on emerging, often many yards away from where it dived 

 in, will stand motionless on the bank, or on a rock, with 

 wings spread out to dry, for half an hour or more. I 

 once watched one standing on the edge of a rock about 

 six inches above the surface of a deep pool. A fairly 

 large crocodile was floating about lazily near by. Most 

 of the time the snake bird seemed entirely immersed in 

 his own thoughts, but when the crocodile happened to 

 come quite close within two or three feet he would 

 utter a couple of hoarse " quacks " and twist his neck 

 round towards the reptile, though without shifting his 

 feet an inch. This went on for over an hour. It was 

 one of those cases which tend to indicate that wild 

 creatures know quite well when their natural enemies 

 are not to be feared. 



BOOK III U 



