Ill THE VICTORIA NYANZA 35 



observer has seen evidence of ferocity in the marsh- 

 buck. I have often watched one of these animals in the 

 Zoological Gardens and never remember to have 

 seen an animal in confinement which appeared so 

 unhappy. This marsh-ljuck used to be fairly common 

 in the swamps around Uganda and on some of the 

 uninhal)ited islands of the Sesse Archipelago. 



Selous, when hunting these marsh-buck on the Chobe 

 river, a tributary of the Zambesi river, descril:)ed the 

 search for these retirino- animals amono- such immense 

 beds of reeds and papyrus as tantamount to looking for 

 needles in a haystack. The natives (jbtain them in 

 the following way. When the animal is approached 

 it immerses the whole body, leaving only the nose and 

 tips of the horns above water, trusting to be unobserved, 

 but the natives paddle cjuite close and spear it. 



The unusual ^ development of the hoofs of Speke's 

 antelope induce me to mention a similar condition of the 

 toes found in a curious bird living on the lake and often 

 called the lily-trotter, from the dainty way in which it 

 walks over the broad leaves of aquatic plants searching 

 for insects. 



This bird is known to ornithologists as the Jacana, 

 and it belongs to the same order as plovers, curlews, 

 and snipe. The lily-trotter has a body like the moor- 

 hen and legs like a coot, but the toes and claws are 

 enormously lengthened, and the bird spreads them out 

 spider-like as it walks over the water-plants. The 

 spread of the Jacana's toes has a diameter of five 

 inches. All memljers of the family (Parridaj) to which 

 the Jacana belongs frequent lakes and swamps whether 

 inland or near the coast. When danger threatens they 

 crouch or partially submerge themselves. 



Tlie Mud-Jlsh. — This inhabitant of the lake is known 

 to the zoologist as the Lepidosiren {Frotopterus 

 cBthiopicus) or lung fish. The natives of Uganda call 

 it mamba, and appreciate it as an article of diet. 



This fish has a long cylindrical body like an eel, and 



D 2 



