HUNTING ON THE SIMBA KIYER 247 



the glass, this oryx appeared distinctly smaller than 

 Oryx hcisa, of a warmer red in pelt and with shorter 

 horn. Then the restless hartebeests took him right 

 away. 



We walked into a genet, which, after a hot chase 

 (once all but run into in the open), escaped by getting 

 to ground. 



Button-quails swarmed in the rushy straths, the same 

 little birds we had seen in such abundance at Baringo — 

 the kurrichaiue hemipode [Ttirnix lepurana) — and the 



SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE LOW-RISIKG SUN. 



francolins also differed from those of the Athi. Here 

 among thick scrub we sjDrang a big dark-brown species, 

 Francoliniis schuetti, and also observed the large bare- 

 throated spur-fowl (Pternistes infuscatus). Bird-life, 

 indeed, was on a wholly different plane, richer, or at 

 least more in evidence than on the hioher table-lands. 

 The rollers, for example, were here the beautiful African 

 lilac-breasted Coixicias caudatus, with elong-ated tail- 

 feathers (as shown in the sketch), replacing the European 

 roller that we had observed near Nairobi. Similarly, the 

 hoopoes at Simba all belonged to the Ethiopian race, 

 Uiyupa africana, a species new to me, and easily distin- 

 guished by its dark, unspotted wing and dull-red body- 

 colour. The British hoopoe, like the British roller, 



