278 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap, xii 



another halt to let the men drink, we were able, by keeping at 

 it later, to do about our accustomed distance. 



While waiting for the men to drink, I was interested in 

 watching, through my glasses, a party of spoonbills feeding in 

 the shallows. They reminded me forcibly of mowers moving 

 slowly in a row, some fifteen or twenty abreast, in open order 

 with measured steps, their heads down and the points of their 

 long bills under water swinging regularly with a sweeping 

 action from right to left. This was evidently their method of 

 feeling for food on the mudd}^ bottom. Some white herons 

 and egrets of various sizes accompanied the spoonbills. There 

 was also a clump of stately pelicans on a low island near, and 

 beyond a large flock of gulls resting on a mud-bank, besides 

 the usual assortment of storks, herons, etc., etc. I wished I 

 could get near enough to photograph the scene, but all my 

 attempts to take snap-shots at the lake birds have resulted in 

 failure. 



We found a nice spot for our camp again to-day, with 

 shady thorn-trees, near two more fishermen's villages on low 

 islands. There was also a high island opposite, far out, not 

 marked on the map I had with me. The lake here is ugly 

 but still interesting — as how could it fail to be with its 

 abounding bird life ? Game too was plentiful, and a hare 

 would now and then get up under one's feet and scuttle away 

 (an animal which, though I have not mentioned it before, is 

 occasionally met with all along the lake). There are also 

 great numbers of small black crows all along here. They may 

 be seen among the huts on the little islands occupied by the 

 El Molo, picking up the fish refuse ; in this way no doubt 

 useful to the islanders, who do not molest them. Hence they 

 become very tame and sometimes a nuisance ; there were 

 flocks always about our camp, and they would venture right in 

 among us and were constantly trying to steal the strips of 

 meat spread about to dry. 



Once more we had, on the 22nd, a series of stony volcanic 



