252 ABUNDANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. Chap. XIV. 



and I feel certain that the lessons of cleanliness rigidly instilled 

 by my mother in childhood, helped to maintain that respect 

 which these people entertain for European ways. It is ques- 

 tionable if a descent to barbarous ways ever elevates a man in 

 the eyes of savages. 



When quite beyond the inhabited parts, we found the country 

 abounding in animal life of every form. There are upwards of 

 thirty species of birds on the river itself. Hundreds of the Ibis 

 religiosa come down the Leeambye with the rising water, as 

 they do on the Nile ; then large white pelicans, in flocks of 

 three hundred at a time, following each other in long extending 

 line, rising and falling as they fly, so regularly all along, as to 

 look like an extended coil of birds; clouds of a black shell- 

 eating bird, called linongolo (Anastomus lamelligerus) ; also 

 plovers, snipes, curlews, and herons, without number. 



There are, besides the more common, some strange varieties. 

 The pretty white ardetta is seen in flocks, settling on the backs 

 of large herds of buffaloes, and following them on the wing 

 Avhen they run; while the kala (Textor erythrorhynchus) is a 

 better horseman, for it sits on the withers when the animal is at 

 full speed. 



Then those strange birds the scissor-bills, with snow-white 

 breast, jet-black coat, and red beak, sitting by day on the sand- 

 banks, the very picture of comfort and repose. Their nests are 

 only little hollows made on these same sandbanks, without any 

 attempt at concealment ; they watch them closely, and frighten 

 away the marabou and crows from their eggs by feigned attacks 

 at their heads. When man approaches their nests, they change 

 their tactics, and, like the lapwing and ostrich, let one wing 

 drop and make one leg limp, as if lame. The upper mandible 

 being so much shorter than the lower, the young are more help- 

 less than the stork in the fable with the flat dishes, and must 

 have everything conveyed into the mouth by the parents, till 

 they are able to provide for themselves. The lower mandible, 

 as thin as a paper-knife, is put into the water while the bird 

 sldms along the surface, and scoops up any little insects it 

 meets. It has great length of wing, and can continue its flight 

 with perfect ease, the wings acting, though kept above the 

 level of the body. The wonder is, how this ploughing of the 



