254 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
and the pinions snowy-white. The beak is yellow with 
a black tip, and suggests an affinity to Gdicnemus, the 
“thick-kneed ” plover. This latter genus is also another 
common pluvialine bird. Then there is Glareola cinerea 
and Nordmani. I found the young of G. cinerea once on 
a little bare piece of rock, only rising a foot above the 
water and not more than a few inches square! I used to 
notice (it was near Msuata) as I crossed the river every day 
that a pair of these Glareole were always perched on this 
little ledge of rock, and moved not, however near the canoe 
approached. One day, however, through careless steering, 
the canoe was driven right up against the rock by the 
current, and, in putting out my hand to break the shock 
of encounter, I put it on something soft and warm. 
Looking down, I saw two little Glareole, about a week 
old, pressing themselves flat against the rock. They were 
covered with blackish down, and were quite invisible 
when crouched against dark surroundings. There was no 
sion of a nest, merely a sight concavity or “scoop” in the 
morsel of rock, which could have retained the eggs. The 
parents all this time flew round me so close to my head 
that I made several ineffectual efforts to catch them with 
my hand. ‘Taking pity on their distress, I left one little 
- one, and took the other home to examine. It was about 
the size of a day-old chicken, was covered with the afore- 
mentioned blackish down, and its legs were rather clumsy. 
The little bird generally rested on its tarsi, with the toes 
outspread like a squab-pigeon, but it could make an effort 
to balance itself on its “feet” and shuffle along. It 
_ seemed quite unable to feed itself, though it took flies 
from the hand. As I felt the difficulty of rearing it, and 
having no spirit to preserve its little carcase for ultimate 
examination, I took it back the next morning to its rocky 
nursery, where it nestled down beside its little brother or 
sister with perfect equanimity, as if nothing particular 
had happened. I continued to take great interest in this 
quaint little family, isolated on a point of rock in mid- 
stream, and paid them several subsequent visits, placing 
an offering of raw meat (to attract the flies) from time to ay 
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