8 A Breath from the Veldt 



boatmen, groups of the little green cormorant may be seen any day pursuing 

 their finny prey to the very verge of the beach. ^ 



The Bay on a still morning in February is a delightful sight to any lover 

 of nature. Great shoals of fish move in every direction, creating ripples on 

 the opal surface that mark their progress through the water, and after them 

 come the " schools " of porpoises and dolphins as well as the fowls of the air. 

 As one gazes out over the blue expanse, hardly a hundred yards square is seen 

 that is not disturbed by the roll of the porpoises, either pursuing their victims 

 or playing in the morning sun ; the graceful, headlong dive of the Cape gannet 

 or booby ; the neat header of the little green cormorant, or the splash of some 

 Dominican gull as he descends. 



The tameness of all these creatures is something amazing. Being never 

 disturbed by the sound of a gun, they repay their preservers by an exhibition of 

 wild life in all its freedom that adds immensely to the charm of the surrounding 

 scenery. In point of natural beauty South Africa, taken as a whole, is a fraud. 

 Here and there are some redeeming features, such as Cape Town, Randebosch, 

 Durban, the Zoutpansberg Mountains, the wood bush of the Nysna Forest, and 

 the low countries and rivers of Eastern Mashonaland and the Zambesi. But 

 these, be it remembered, are in a country half as big as Europe. To the sight- 

 seer it has little more to show than a series of huge wildernesses, either perfectly 

 open or covered with grass and sheepbush, or ornamented with monotonous 

 acacia forests. The traveller, therefore, labours under a considerable dis- 

 advantage in viewing the one real gem. Cape Town, on his first arrival in the 

 country. Should he be tempted to think that Cape Town is a sample of what 

 is to follow up country, he will be greatly disappointed, for one scene after 



1 Should the traveller be so disposed, an interesting sight may be witnessed any day by watching these 

 little cormorants fishing. Their more ordinary method is that of singly diving in the shallows, after the 

 manner of all their species. But instinct and an excessive abundance of their natural food has taught these 

 birds that by uniting their forces a full stomach may be obtained with far less trouble than the methods they 

 usually employ. The plan resorted to is as follows ; and with the exception of one species of North African 

 pelican, it is one that is not followed by any other sea-bird that I know of : — 



The cormorants to the number of ten or twenty form line, each bird being within a couple of feet from 

 its neighbour, and swim along the shore at right angles to the beach, the bird nearest the land being only just 

 able to float. In this manner they advance, constantly inspecting the water beneath by immersing their 

 heads and necks until a shoal of small fish is found. Then the whole line wheels, as it were, at once 

 shorewards, most of the birds diving together in shallows, thus frightening the fish, which escape before them 

 in such quantities that a large number are forced right out of the sea on to the beach itself. These tactics 

 are generally rewarded by a plentiful repast, each bird resting on its breast amidst the stones, and gobbling 

 up the fish as they spring on all sides, attempting to regain their natural element. In the accompanying 

 sketch the reader will see a representation of this interesting spectacle, as well as of the manner in which 

 the Cape booby catches his prey by means of an aerial header. 



