DR. EMIL HOLUB. 193 
ing. This marsh, about goo yards in diameter, with a deep 
rocky cavern in its centre, is worthy of the admiration of 
mankind; it is a place offering any amount of important 
observations upon bird-life to every lover of natural science, 
but it is especially attractive to an ornithologist who 
wishes to learn and to study, and who does not come 
to destroy birds and thus make his visit a mercenary 
matter. 
The marsh is inhabited by numerous birds. Many species 
of singers and Finches, many more of wading and swimming 
birds, nest among the tall reeds, making this only marshy 
thicket in the vast plain their home for the whole year 
through; but there are others, like the European Swallow, 
different kinds of Herons, Storks, Cranes, and other Gralla, 
Plectropterus gambensis and the Egyptian Goose (Chenalopex 
egyptiacus), which pour in toward the night only, selecting 
this lonely spot to be their dormitory for the few hours up 
to the dawning day. 
I consider the few days which I spent on the banks of 
this pool as some of the happiest ones which I experienced 
during my first African exploring trip of seven years’ 
duration ; but one thing which I do deplore is that, having 
no boat, I was not able to explore the centre of the dark 
waters and those many small islands, formed of floating 
rushes and broken-down reeds, which are the real nesting- 
places of numerous pairs of Fudicula, and several species 
of Anas, Dendrocygna and Querquedula. e 
It is just an hour before sunset. In the reeds below, the 
great noise produced by so many feathered inhabitants keeps 
on, as during the whole day. Conspicuous more than others 
are the hundreds of pairs of bright red Finches (Pyrome- 
lana sundevalh) watching their nests, and having used two 
or three close reeds as pillars for each of them; different 
species of yellow-tinted Weavers (Ploceus and Hyphantornis) 
are the next ones audible with their voices ; in which chorus 
a few troops of the beautiful Kafir Finches, the nicest South 
13 
