230 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



Their safe seclusion pleases even the hippopotamus so well that 

 it seeks them out as fit places where to bring forth and suckle, 

 tend and rear its young, safe from dangerous intruders, and without 

 trouble as to food, which the water supplies in abundance. Wild 

 hogs and buffaloes are also attracted to the luxuriant fringe of vege- 

 tation and to the creeks which gradually pass into swamp and bog. 

 To all the thirsty race of antelopes the quiet pools afford welcome 

 supplies. On the surface thousands of pelicans gather in the even- 

 ings, and fish greedily before they go to roost on the tall trees near 

 by; all day long the darters dive; many ducks and geese swim about, 

 both native species and those which have come from the north to 

 these comfortable winter- quarters; in the creeks and shallows the 

 giant-herons and the beautiful little bush-herons secure rich booty 

 at small cost of exertion ; countless hosts of little birds are sheltered 

 among the green, sappy herbage of the shore, and many other shore- 

 and water-birds find resting-places and build their nests on the over- 

 towering trees of the forest. 



It is no wonder, then, that these lakes should periodically swarm 

 with birds; and it is likewise plain that such great wealth of booty 

 must also attract all sorts of enemies. The smaller birds are fol- 

 lowed by the falcons and owls, the larger birds by the eagle and 

 horned owl, the mammals by the fox and jackal, the leopard and the 

 lion. Sometimes, too, an army of voracious locusts coming in from 

 the steppe falls upon the fresh green girdle around such a lake and 

 ravages it in a few days, devouring all the leaves. Or one should 

 rather say threatening to devour, for at such a time the assemblage 

 of birds becomes even larger than before. From far and near they 

 come flocking falcons and owls, ravens and rollers, francolins and 

 guinea-fowl, storks and ibises, coots and ducks. Every bird that 

 ever eats insects now confines itself exclusively to the pertinacious 

 visitors. Hundreds of kestrels and lesser kestrels, which are then 

 in these winter-quarters, sweep over the invaded forest, and swoop 

 down upon the locusts, seizing and devouring them, with scarce an 

 interruption in their flight. Ravens, rollers, hornbills, ibises, and 

 storks pick them off the branches of the trees and shake down hun- 

 dreds which fall victims to the guinea-fowl, ducks, and other birds 



