40 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



the nesting- season, the weavers disturb the sleepy atmo- 

 sphere of a village with noisy cries and the bustle of their 

 building operations ; at such times they remind one of 

 rooks ; they are quarrelsome and appear to derive satis- 

 faction in stealing the sticks from each other's nests. In 

 physical formation, this weaver -finch has the peculiarity 

 of the duck but to an exaggerated extent. 



When after many weary months, the shores of Chad were 

 reached, the sight of the mysterious lake conjured up to my 

 imagination the discovery of new and strange birds in- 

 habiting the solitudes of its far-off islands. But my quests 

 were doomed to disappointment. The low, flat islands held 

 no secrets, for the Lake was merely a watering-place on the 

 highway of the Sudan fauna. "With the exception of a reed- 

 warbler {Calamocichla chadensis) new to science, there are 

 no species pecuhar to the Lake. This reed-warbler inhabits 

 the belts of maria bush on the islands, and I shall never 

 forget the torments I had to endure while standing knee- 

 deep in water in the dark jungle of the maria, my face 

 blackened by hungry mosquitoes before I could secure some 

 specimens. 



Many of the islands which are uninhabited and covered 

 with flowering reeds, thick grass and low scrub, are the home 

 of brown owls {Strix leucotis), a species which is pretty weU- 

 distributed over the grass-covered plains of Africa. It is 

 found in quite large numbers on the Lake. A grass fire 

 seldom failed to awaken some of them and they were soon 

 on the spot preying upon the rodents driven out by the 

 flames. And so, too, the marsh-harrier [Circus ceruginosus) 

 another familiar inhabitant, would arrive on the scene to 



