LAKE NO 249 



were undoubtedly "Neumann's," and, being anxious to 

 procure a specimen or two for myself, I asked their owner 

 a seven-foot grisly savage with an eagle glance 

 to guide me to the place where he had killed them. His 

 reply (and I was at pains to understand it) was that 

 the spot was distant three days' journey, and he added : 

 " I also am a hunter the same as you, and I hunt alone 

 with my dog and spear." A grand old sportsman, 

 surely ! Big-game, however, is treated elsewhere, and this 

 chapter intended rather to concern itself with the minor 

 forms of life and with the daily work of field-naturalists. 



I remember my first evening at Lake No it was 

 on February 8th, 1913. By the water -side a low 

 thorn-tree (which was completely enshrouded in a purple- 

 blossomed liana) bore a great stick-built nest, surmounted 

 by a thatch of dry reeds that resembled a haycock. On 

 throwing a clod, out darted from a lateral exit facing the 

 river a hammerhead (Stopus umbretta], which I shot. 

 Abdul removed half a cartload of dry reeds and reported 

 the nest empty. I knew better, and directed the dis- 

 mantling to proceed. Beneath the superincumbent 

 thatch was a double-storied, stick-built structure, and in 

 the lower chamber lay three white eggs, in size and shape 

 resembling a sparrow-hawk's. They now repose in the 

 National Collection. Meanwhile, a fierce family-feud had 

 arisen between three fiscal shrikes close by ; and so intent 

 were they on settling mutual differences, careless of my 

 presence, that I secured the trio with one shot from the 

 410 "Tomtit gun." A mixed bag had been increased 

 by several other beautiful and interesting birds a 

 catalogue of which would certainly bore the general 

 reader (besides which, some were total strangers to me) 

 when among heavy cane-grass I almost trod on a wart- 

 hog. The rush of an unseen beast got on Mahomed 

 Maghazi's nerves, and* when, a few minutes later, we 

 found ourselves pretty well mixed up with a beautifully 

 mottled copper-yellow snake (Mahomed swore it jabbed 



