34 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



One spot struck me as very remarkable. I followed a 

 I'avine Avhich enters the main pass at Guinea-fowl Plain 

 for about three miles. Some Shohos tried to turn me 

 back, but, although I was alone, I was well armed, and 

 found it convenient to misunderstand them. At length 

 I reached a spot where the valley appeared absolutely to 

 terminate. On one side was a precipice of granitoid 

 gneiss about a hundred feet high, on the other a stiU 

 higher wall of tufa overhanging at the top. Down the 

 granitic rock trickled the smallest of streams, sufficient, 

 however, to attract numerous hamadryas monkeys, who 

 sat on the rocks around. The tufa cliffs were the roost- 

 ing-place of a large colony of Amydrus- Blythi, a rare 

 bird, something like a starling with a long tail, black, 

 with chestnut wings. In the evening these birds were 

 flying around in considerable numbers, keeping up a 

 constant chattering cry. I subsequently revisited the 

 spot, and shot several specimens, to the consternation 

 of the monkeys, who howled at me from the rocks 

 above. 



In Lieutenant Sturt, who arrived some days before at 

 Undul Wells in charge of the transport train at that 

 camp, I found a capital ornithologist, and we had many 

 rambles together in search of birds. At a subsequent 

 period the same officer took charge of one of my native 

 collectors. The fauna of Undul AVells and its neigh- 

 bourhood is very interesting, comprising several birds 

 which are found neither on the highlands nor on the sea- 

 coast, such as two woodpeckers (Pictis Hemprichii and 

 P. nuhicus), a little barbet {Barhatuln pvsilla), and a 



