166



Review.



Uganda, smothered in showers of butterflies; the crater lakes of

Toro and the fantastic nightmare flora of the Giant’s Garden.


Many of the illustrations are so good that one wishes they

could have been reproduced in colour. For instance, we note the

pretty camp scene facing p. 40 [one can readily call up the vivid

enamel blue sky, the brilliant crude green vegetation, and the heavv

scent of the parasol-topped acacias] ; Lake Victoria and its tiny

fishing fleet, swimming in a heat-haze ; the native potter with his

wares and the background of tall, frayed banana trees ; caravan

porters crossing a swamp, each with his load stepping through the

papyrus, a typical African scene ; the still, burnished crater lake,

asleep in the sunshine ; and the grim gigantic flora overlooking a

blue valley in the Mountains of the Moon.


To the aviculturist the various bird paragraphs will appeal

strongly. Thus on p. 49 the writer says :


“ From the points of the palm-leaves myriads of weaver-birds

nests hung, like beautiful pendulous fruit. I wish you could have

seen them ; I think there is nothing so picturesque or fascinating

in nature as bird-life. There were hundreds of them. Brown and

round, with tiny openings for front doors, they hung suspended in

the lightest fashion from every conceivable tip and point of the

jagged leaves of a swaying palm-tree, whose leaves did not only grow

in the mop-broom fashion at the top of the tree, but spread out from

it all the way dowm. Moving lightly in the breeze, they looked like

unlit Chinese lanterns on a tree decorated for one of the fetes which

Arabs love. The birds themselves, in the sunlight, looked as bright

as yellow canaries, and they darted in and out of their nests like

bees seeking honey.”


On p. 50 :


“ There is a brilliantly-coloured bird called the bee-eater,

which has amusing habits. I saw hundreds of them in the Rift

Valley when I was on the railway. They sit on the branches of

trees, and pounce down upon wasps, bees, flies, and all sorts of

insects, when they are flying through the air. It is a pretty sight

to watch them. Their tails are very long and pointed, because the

three central feathers stick out far beyond the others. One of their

favourite occupations is riding on the back of a bustard, and very



