34 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



does he seem by his long tail, and endeavouring all the 

 time to keep himself up by a series of odd jerks. 



Among the plantations are tall dead trees, bare of bark, 

 having been licked to death by bush-fires many years ago. 

 These attract large woodpeckers, generally in pairs, which 

 come to attack their dead cores, making the dry wood 

 resound with loud, vibrating drilling sounds. And when 

 the woodpeckers have left, glossy starlings {Lamprocolius), 

 of wonderful metallic lustre, come and go, uttering at in- 

 tervals strings of discordant screeches that set one's teeth 

 on edge. 



The beautiful blue jay, or roller [Coraciasahyssinicus], is 

 also a frequent visitor to the plantations, where ho makes 

 raids upon the locusts that infest the staik-strewn ground. 

 He is a cunning and distrustful bird, and seldom allows a 

 close approach ; at the sight of gun-barrels he is off in 

 double quick time, flying high till he becomes a mere speck 

 in the sky. When in a playful mood he will go through 

 a performance of many twists and gyrations in the air, 

 jerking out all the time hoarse, screechy notes as if he revelled 

 in the sun. He has a quarrelsome nature, being a con- 

 stant source of annoyance to the small birds that come 

 within his ken, especially the flocks of weavers, which he 

 takes a mischievous delight in darting at as they go swishing 

 past, obHging them to break from their close formation into 

 skirmishing order. 



Away from the villages the birds are less frequent, and 

 one can go for several miles sometimes without observing 

 any, and then come across suddenly quite a large gathering 

 of different species, such as finches, fly-catchers, golden 



