A STRANGE PICTURE OF PEACE 69 



place. Boundless energy, immense strength, and 

 tireless activity are here, and expend themselves in 

 every variety of somersault and caper. All round, 

 in the vi^ater and running about the sandy margin, 

 multitudes of w^aders and shore birds are seeking 

 their breakfast, and several crocodiles recline 

 motionless as so many tree trunks, secure in the 

 knowledge that the friendly spur-winged plover 

 will give them warning when anything of a doubt- 

 ful or dangerous character presents itself. This 

 singular compact between widely diiFerent mem- 

 bers of the creation is noticeable in the case of 

 several animals, such as the rhinoceros, eland, and 

 others, each of which has its attendant bird to 

 warn it of impending peril ; and one asks oneself 

 in vain whence originated the amazing understand- 

 ing whereby the approach of a common danger 

 became the basis of a compact for the compassing 

 of a common security. How could so strange a 

 combination have originally sprung up, and which 

 side, we wonder, was it to make the first advance ? 

 On the tree roots and sands, and even on the broad 

 surface of the green water lilies, perch egrets and 

 darters, bitterns and stilts, whilst high up on some 

 overhanging branch, eagerly scanning the water 

 below, great pied kingfishers are waiting for an 

 opportunity to hurl themselves headforemost after 

 their prey into the placid mirror-like pool. It is a 

 peaceful scene of a beauty and interest which few 

 who have looked upon it could ever forget. One 

 hesitates to disturb it, seeing that there is nothing 

 edible to tempt one's gun ; but even as this resolve 

 shapes itself in the mind, other destructive agencies 



