VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 



49 



sible. Hence it was with no small surprise that we found 

 (as already described at p. 11), that among their flotillas 

 was included a considerable proportion totally incapable 

 of flight. These comprised both goslings that had not 

 yet attained the flying stage, and their parents which had 

 moulted their quills a singular state of affairs in mid- 

 winter? Still, it merely emphasised the fact above 

 stated that, in Ethiopia, birds recognise no rule as to 

 the breeding-season. 



SUNSET ON WHITE NILE GLOSSY IBIS. 



Under such conditions, it might be concluded that 

 these helpless geese were entirely at our mercy. That 

 was not, in fact, the case. Nature had foreseen the 

 danger and provided against it. Their temporary help- 

 lessness was safeguarded by a temporary development 

 in diving powers that was nothing short of marvellous. 

 These heavy geese dived as smartly as grebes or 

 goosanders. A whole company, old and young, would 

 submerge close at hand to reappear, all scattered, a full 

 hundred yards away! -From a lifetime's experience of 

 wild-geese, I would never have believed such a performance 



possible. Moreover, this faculty was purely a temporary 



D 



