CARAVAN LIFE 17 



tastes better with the skin on ; but it is a mistake to imagine that 

 the bird is not fit for food because it has been skinned. On 

 Christmas Eve, 1896, I shot a partridge at " Mondo " in Uganda. 

 The bird I had for my Christmas dinner. The skin I sent home 

 to England ; it turned out to be a very rare species and only 

 the second specimen of the sort ever sent home. A similar 

 thing happened with a very handsome partridge I shot one 

 day near the Samia Hills in Kavirondo. The skin is now at 

 the South Kensington Museum, and the second one there of 

 another rare species, the first of which was shot near Mount 

 Elgon. At Campi-ya-Simba I shot sand-grouse, and at Kikuyu 

 spur-fowl. 



But the wild guinea-fowl is the bird for the traveller's table. 

 It IS surprising what varieties of wild guinea-fowl are met with 

 along the caravan route, to mention but three: the "horned," 

 the " crested," and the " vulturine." This bird gives the best 

 return for the shot expended on it ; there is a good deal of meat 

 on it, and what there is is good. Snipe and quail are very tasty, 

 but yield so little that very few travellers can afford to waste 

 a shot on them. Egyptian goose falls a big dish, but, as a rule, 

 it is tough and therefore not a favourite. 



The " horned " guinea-fowl is perhaps the variety best known 

 in England, as it is the only one which has been domesticated 

 and reared for the market. But there are a great many different 

 species even amongst these ; some, like the " Hildebrandti," have 

 enormous horns ; others, like the Uganda species, have a very 

 tiny horn and a tuft of bristles in front of it ; those at the Kiboko 

 river are comparatively small birds; those near Lake Xakuru are 

 exceptionally large. 



But a far handsomer bird is the " crested " guinea-fowl, having 

 instead of the horn a tuft of feathers like a crest. Its call is not 

 the noisy " takak-takak-takak " of the horned bird. Swahilies 

 call it the " kororo," in imitation of its cry. 



The "vulturine" has neither a horn nor a crest; it has a 

 bald pate like a vulture, with a semi-ring of soft feathers like a 

 bald man's occipital patch of hair. 



The guinea-fowl has a noisy and heavy flight. With a broken 

 wing the bird may yet escape by running, but with a broken 

 leg it cannot escape as easily by flying. It is almost sure 

 to betray its presence by the noisy call in the early morning 

 or towards dusk, when it roosts on some high leafy tree and 



B 



