58 



ON SAFARI 



formed a solid black mass, inches deep, along the ridge- 

 poles of our tents and in the angles of the roof. But at 

 midday there was no escape. They crawled over hands, 

 face and food alike ; swam in shoals in milk or coffee ; 

 buzzed in one's ears and down one's neck — one long 

 buzz, buzz, buzz, bite and sting from dawn till dark. 



Thence another day's travel took us on to the 

 Baringo Plain. In four marches we had descended from 

 8,000 ft. at the Ungusori camp to 3,500 ft. here ; and 



: If . 





/^■^^Cr 



SOCIAL ■WEAVER-FINCH, Avitli its 100-roomed nest. 



the reduced elevation was marked by corresj^onding 

 changes in the heat, the vegetation and the bird-life, 

 all three here assuming a tropical character. We had 

 descended from regions of bracken and bramble to palm 

 and tree-fern. Birds there were that we had never seen 

 before — birds strange of form, of plumage and of flight ; 

 all then utterly unknown to me. There were gorgeous 

 tropical types, as sunbirds and barbets, bulbuls with 

 glorious fiute-like note, heard both by day and last 

 thing at night, and weaver-finches that filled whole trees 

 with nests — some containing eggs, others young, in 



