1872.] THE DOCTOR'S LITTLE FRIENDS. 191 



quite absorb the whole, but occasionally the absorbents 

 have too much to do ; the ovarium, and eventually the 

 whole abdomen, seems in a state of inflammation, as when 

 they are trying to remove a mortified human limb ; and 

 the poor fish, feeling its strength leaving it, true to instinct, 

 goes to the entrance to the burn where it ought to have 

 spawned, and, unable to ascend, dies. The defect is pro- 

 bably the want of the aid of a milter. 



21th May. — Another pair of the kind (in which the cock 

 is redbreasted) had ten chickens, also rebuilds afresh. The 

 red cock-bird feeds all the brood. Each little one puts 

 his head on one side as he inserts his bill, chirruping 

 briskly, and bothering him. The young ones lift up a 

 feather as a child would a doll, and invite others to do the 

 same, in play. So, too, with another pair. The cock skips 

 from side to side with a feather in his bill, and the hen is 

 pleased: nature is full of enjoyment. Near Kasanganga's 

 I saw boys shooting locusts that settled on the ground 

 with little bows and arrows. 



Cock Whydah bird died in the night. The brood came 

 and chirruped to it for food, and tried to make it feed them, 

 as if not knowing death ! 



A wagtail dam refused its young a caterpillar till it had 

 been killed — she ran away from it, but then gave it when 

 ready to be swallowed. The first smile of an infant with its 

 toothless gums is one of the pleasantest sights in nature. 

 It is innocence claiming kinship, and asking to be loved in 

 its helplessness. 



28th May. — Many parts of this interior land present 

 most inviting prospects for well-sustained efforts of private 

 benevolence. Karague, for instance, with its intelligent 

 friendly chief Eumainyika (Speke's Eumanika), and Bou- 

 ganda, with its teeming population, rain, and friendly chief, 

 who could easily be swayed by an energetic prudent mis- 

 sionary. The evangelist must not depend on foreign support 



