from South Africa. 359 



and utterly refused to shew itself. I may, however, 

 have been unlucky in my choice of a direction, and of course 

 I was never more than a mile or two from the centre of the 

 town. We visited the Matopo hills in a large party by train 

 and coach, but had little chance of exploring in our limited 

 time. Giraffes and other animals were seen in the Park. 



Near the Victoria Falls the country becomes somewhat 

 more thickly wooded, though even in the so-called desert 

 small trees were almost everywhere studded about among the 

 thorny scrub. None of the trees, however, gave any impres- 

 sion of great size or height until the Falls were reached, 

 while there was no attempt at tropical jungle even on the 

 banks or islands of the Zambesi. Palms, however, flourished 

 in the " kloofs " or ravines, and baobabs with their curious 

 enlarged trunks were scattered over the district, but the 

 " rain-forest " was almost dry, as comparatively little water 

 was coming over the falls. Birds were fairly plentiful, but 

 our party had now become too large and active to admit of 

 many observations being made. Nevertheless, in the direc- 

 tion of Livingstone Island I observed two Ospreys (Pandion 

 haliaetns) fishing in the river, fair numbers of small Cormo- 

 rants (Phalacrocorax africanus) perched on the rocky islets — 

 and with them undoubtedly a few Snake-birds (Plotus rufus) ; 

 a Crow (Corvus capensis) and a Bulbul (? sp.) were also seen, 

 a Warbler was climbing about the reed-grasses on one of the 

 islands, the Black Tit (Parus niger) clung to the branches, 

 and finally Cenjle rudis, Motacilla vidua, and Lophoceros 

 epirhinvs were noticed not far from the Hotel. Without a 

 gun it was almost impossible to determine the smaller birds, 

 which occurred in flocks, but the commonest kind looked like 

 a small rufous Weaver-bird. I spent a whole morning 

 sitting in concealment upon a lonely island, but saw only one 

 bird there and heard few. Mr. W. L. Sclater, however 

 (' Ibis/ 1905, pp. 106-114), has given so full a list of the 

 species met with during his earlier visit that my ill-fortune 

 is of little importance, and to that list our readers may be 

 referred for an account of the avifauna of the Falls generally. 



On the return journey to Kimberley we again halted at 



