304 DANKALLI NATURALISTS. 



showed their red tops between the summits of the 

 low trees, and numerous herds of several different 

 kinds of antelope were feeding all around. At 

 length, the lava ridges on either side seemed to 

 approach each other, and we reached a confined 

 valley, through which flowed a narrow stream, 

 winding among thick clumps of very high trees. 

 Birds of the most brilliant plumage, and gorgeously 

 tinted butterflies, made the road one continued 

 cabinet gallery of all that is rare and beautiful, in 

 the colours which are most admired, in these painted 

 favourites of nature. 



Some Dankalli naturalists, who wanted a few red 

 tail feathers to ornament their greasy locks, made a 

 requisition for me to supply them, pointing to my 

 gun, and then to the birds ; but I would not under- 

 stand them in any other way than my own, and so 

 nodding very good humouredly, I told them to 

 remain where they were ; and going a few yards 

 from the road, fired into a busy-pecking crowd of 

 guinea-fowl, bringing back with me a brace of very 

 fine ones ; birds, however, which, to the great 

 disappointment of my Dankalli fashionable friends, 

 were found to have scarcely any more tail feathers 

 than they had themselves. 



We should have halted two hours before we did, 

 at the very commencement of the valley of 

 Hasanderah Kabeeh, as the little stream was 

 called, but that we there found it filled with an 

 immense herd of cattle, through which we marched, 



