ELMENTEITA IN FEBRUARY 137 



A curious example of animal-cunning occurred on this 

 march. Twice I walked on to a sleeping jackal, and on 

 eacli occasion the animal, after running thirty or forty 

 3'ards, sprang high in air, repeating the leap a few yards 

 beyond, in apparent anticipation of the advent of a 

 bullet ! It was the more remarkable as these beasts are 

 rarely shot at. There are in East Africa two species of 

 jackal — the ordinary fox-hke animal with white-tipped 

 brush {Cants aureus), and the beautiful black-backed 

 jackal (C. mesomelas) with golden-spangled sides, and 

 wdiose brush deepens to black at the end. Both species 

 are equally abundant. I weighed three common jackals, 

 two females 15 and 16|- lbs., one male 17^ lbs. 



A Night with Pachyderms 



Our immediate objective on Lake Elmenteita was to 

 obtain specimens of the hippopotami which frequent 

 that salt lake in some numbers. According to our 

 information, these great amphibians, while spending the 

 day in mid-water, approach the sweet-water rivers to 

 drink at dusk, thus affording the chance of a shot. 

 Our river, the Karriendoos, was quite a small stream, 

 not so big as a Northumbrian burn, and towards evening 

 we concealed ourselves on the point of a rush-clad spit 

 that commanded its entrance. Several hippos were in 

 view in the open water outside and a wondrous scene in 

 tropical wild-life unfolded as evening advanced. Skeins 

 of huge spur- winged geese, black and white, flighted in 

 to drink the sweet water ; ducks also of varied kinds — 

 the equatorial representative of our mallard (Anas 

 undulata), together with pintail and shoveler, familiar 

 in Europe. There were teal of two kinds, garganeys 

 and pochard {erythrophthalma) — all these flew or swam 

 within half-gunshot of our hide. Outside, among the 

 rushes, swam groups of the singular Maccoa pochard 

 [Erismatura. maccoa), ducks whose plumage is rather 

 a glossy filament like that of grebes, and with long stifl" 

 cormorant -like tails which the drakes often carry bolt 

 upright. On the foreshores waded sacred and glossy 



