MY JOUENEY FROM LOKO TO DORRORO 189 



starlings were to be seen, which, hke our own, hang about 

 the haunts of man with aggressively famihar bearing. The 



A FTJLANI OX^ 



shy thrush and shyer redstart, too, came down to the plots 

 under cover of the bush. A pair or two of black-and-white 

 crows held points of vantage on tall trees by the village. 

 Every hamlet seems to own at least a pair of these birds 

 which act as scavengers and are treated as friends by the 

 natives. In an ornamental way, they rather share duty 

 with the pigeons, imitating their ways of wooing with comic 

 effect, for their ungainly bows and scrapes and rattling 

 love-notes are a caricature of the more romantic birds. 



