A HORNBILVS NEST. 131 
three stopped for a day or two's hunting a few 
miles further on, beyond the river. Here buffalo 
and blue wildebeest were met with, and the 
spoor of ostriches was seen. From a fine rocky 
plateau in the neighbourhood a good survey of the 
surrounding district was obtained. " Looking to 
the south-west," writes the traveller, " we saw the 
distant conical range of the Tati hills, between 
which and ourselves lay a fine green bush-covered 
plain, through which flow the Impakwe and Rama- 
queban Rivers. This plain extends far to the west 
and north, but to the north-east is again broken by 
kopjes in the direction of the Mangwe, whilst the 
fine craggy hills of the Inkwesi rise nearer in the 
same direction." Some delicious fruits, not unlike 
greengages, known by the natives as " marula," 
were picked up about here on the march. Between 
the skin and the large stone in the centre of each 
was a sweet liquid with scarcely any pulp. "We 
also found," adds the writer, " a number of berries, 
of which we ate a good lot. These grow on low 
bushes, which have a sweet-scented yellow flower, 
with a smell like that of sallow bloom. The fruit is 
reddish-brown, about the size of a haw ; dry, sweet, 
and containing a stone. It is called ' Kafir plum.' " 
Here too a hornbill's nest was found. "The boys," 
says Frank Oates, " brought me a young hornbill, 
and I was taken to the nest. A hollow tree, with 
a hole in it, high up, was where the bird had come 
from. They poked out and pulled the wing-feathers 
off the old hen when I was not looking. I kept 
