24 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



is sitting. Tlien the long wing pinions are raised so that they 

 droop over the head towards her. Should the female shift 

 her position, the male gives chase to alight once again like 

 a featherweight in front of her. 



Our journey up the Benue gave us many opportunities 

 of observing its bird-life, which I shall now endeavour to 

 describe since it is typical of all African rivers. The geese 

 and duck, though there were numerous sand-banks, were 

 not very plentiful and no more than a species of each 

 was observed. Parties of the spur- winged geese {Plec- 

 tropterus gamhensis) frequently offered us tempting shots, 

 but they proved tough in more ways than one, tough to shoot 

 and tough to eat. This is quite the most common goose 

 on African rivers. I remember seeing large numbers in a 

 back-water of the Yo river. Concealed amongst the reeds 

 I managed to shoot several as they dropped down for the 

 night. Besides this goose, there was the whistling duck 

 (Dendrocygna viduata), or " wishi wishi " as the Hausas call 

 it, in imitation of the noise it makes when taking to flight 

 on being disturbed. At night we used constantly to hear 

 large flocks taking wide circuits inland from the river 

 and keeping up the whole time a sibilant whistling. 



The sand-banks of the Benue are, for the most part, the 

 resorts of quaint water-birds, such as crowned cranes, 

 marabou storks, pelicans, wattled plovers, and the still 

 smaller sand-plovers, pratincoles, scissor-billed terns and 

 black-winged stilts. The sand-banks are large and there is 

 plenty of room for all. Perhaps at one end a batch of 

 pelicans sit huddled together, waiting lazily for the heat 

 to abate, while the little plovers seem more lively for the 



