GUINEA-FOWLS 327 



pertinacity to a given area, waxing within it 

 both numerous and fat ; and even after their 

 haunts have been discovered they may, unless 

 ruthlessly slaughtered at the outset, be made 

 to yield a brace or so occasionally without 

 manifesting the least anxiety to change their 

 quarters. 



When I resided some years ago at Mozam- 

 bique, I lighted accidentally one day upon such a 

 colony of unsuspected guinea-fowls which were 

 always to be found within measurable distance of 

 a point on the neighbouring mainland, which, if I 

 remember rightly, was called Sancoul Point. 

 Nobody else knew of the presence of these birds, 

 and, as shooting of any kind was practically un- 

 obtainable — if one except shore birds, and a few 

 duck in some marshes 8 miles away — I kept my 

 discovery carefully to myself. About once a fort- 

 night I would go over and help myself to a brace 

 or two, upon which the eyes of passers-by would 

 on my return grow big with surprise, but although 

 a sharp look-out was maintained for a long time, 

 and I believe I was once followed, the locality 

 of my preserve remained a profound mystery 

 until my departure. This was a very necessary 

 precaution as, had I once afforded the smallest 

 clue to the whereabouts of the birds, all the 

 Portuguese possessed of a shot-gun would have 

 swept in a cloud through the unsuspected refuge, 

 and not a single guinea-fowl would have been left 

 either for me or for anybody else. 



In Zambezia -there are three kinds of these 

 birds which, eschewing scientific names, I will call 



