BIRDS OF THE SWALLOW SPECIES. 377 



ther fine, and a strong current : Mr. Dean sick, 

 and also four blacks. 



At 5 A. M. on the 21st of June, we again 

 started, and found the current about three knots 

 per hour. The morning was very fine, and we 

 landed to breakfast on a sandbank, where we 

 saw an immense number of birds of the swallow 

 species, with a long beak. Their nests appeared 

 to be in excavations made in the sand. A num- 

 ber of hawks were hovering around, apparently 

 watching them. I placed my hand in one of the 

 holes, and found a nest containing six young birds, 

 partly fledged. As I was looking at them as 

 they lay on the sand, about a dozen hawks darted 

 down and carried them off. The sandbank re- 

 sembled a rabbit-warren, the holes being so nu- 

 merous. In the afternoon we saw four hippopo- 

 tami on an island : after looking some time at 

 us, they retreated very slowly into the water, 

 and we observed them shortly after swimming to 

 the bank of the river. The current being very 

 strong, and our men very much fatigued, we 

 were drifting down the river, when a canoe from 

 the town of Otiyha, with a few Eboe natives in 

 it, kindly assisted us : they supplied us with 



