In Wildest Africa ^ 



stotmts lamelligerus, Tern.) in their simple but attractive 

 plumage. They have come in quest of food. Hundreds 

 of other marsh-birds o{ all kinds have settled on the out- 

 spread branches of the trees, and enable us to distinguish 

 between their widely differing notes. 



Among these old trees that overhang the river, covered 

 with creepers and laden with fruit of quaint shape, are 

 Kigelia, tamarinds, and acacias. In amongst the dense 

 branches a family of Angolan guereza apes {Colobus 

 palliatus, Ptrs.) and a number of long-tailed monkeys 

 are moving to and fro. Now a flock of snowy-feathered 

 herons [Herodias garzetta, L., and Btibulais ibis, L.) flash 

 past, dazzlingly white — two hundred of them, at least — 

 alighting for a moment on the brittle branches and pausing 

 in their search for food. Gravely moving their heads 

 about from side to side, they impart a peculiar charm 

 to the trees. Now another flock of herons {Herodias 

 alba, L.), also dazzlingly white, but birds of a larger 

 growth, speed past, flying for their lives. Why is it that 

 even here, in this remote sanctuary of animal life, within 

 which I am the first European trespasser, these beautiful 

 birds are so timorous ? Who can answer that question 

 with any certainty ? All we know Is, that It has come to 

 be their nature to scour about from place to place in 

 perpetual flight. Perhaps In other lands they have made 

 acquaintance with man's destructiveness. Perhaps they 

 are endowed with keener senses than their smaller snow- 

 white kinsfolk, which suffer us to approach so near, and 

 which, like the curious clatter-bill (which have never 

 yet been seen in captivity), evince no sign of shyness — 



^26 



