120



Mr. Gekakd H. Gukney,



has become a charmingly tame and interesting bird and is, at

present, in very good order and health. This Concal as it is

often called is a common species in East Africa, frequenting the

dense bush, generally in the vicinity of water and living

principally amongst the reedy and jungly edges of lakes and

rivers, in which it crawls about searching for food. They

appear to be able only to fly a very short distance at a time

and seem unwilling to take to flight unless obliged to, crawling

in and out of the reeds and undergrowth almost like the Rails.

They have a beautiful loud, bubbling note, which sounds like

gurgling water being poured out of an inverted narrow-necked

bottle, and the natives call it the “ water-bottle bird ” and some¬

times “ Rain bird ” because they say they call more loudly

before wet weather.


Away from civilization they appeared to be extraordinarily

tame and fearless of man, and my bird was caught by my native

gunbearer who saw it sitting in a small tree and, knowing my

predilection for anything alive, went into the bush and caught it

with his hands with hardlyany difficulty, the bird barely attempt¬

ing to resist, merely hopping from one bough to another; at first

I thought it must be ill or hurt in some way, but I presently

found that it was simply its utter fearlessness of man which made

it appear to be so tame. We were on a shooting expedition at

the time and being continually on the move I did not think there

was much likelihood of my being able to keep it alive, as I

imagined in any case it would be a difficult bird to feed ; however

it seemed so extraordinarily tame and quiet that I determined to

try, and from the very first I had not the least trouble with it.

It began to feed at once on sopped bread, certain berries, grass¬

hoppers, and the ever valuable “Abrahams’ Egg Yolk,’’ several

tins of which I had taken out to Africa with me. In a tiny cage

I brought my Centropus safely back to England, and though when

he arrived he looked very dirty and bedraggled his wonderful

crimson eye being the only clean bright bit about him, three

weeks in a large outdoor aviary soon did wonders with his plum¬

age, and he is now in as perfect feather and condition as anyone

could wish to see a bird in.


Possibly from having been all the summer in too large an



