Chap. XXX. CONFINEMENT OF THE KOKWE. 399 



Lake Shiiia, which has prevented their progress southwards. 

 The Batoka have no name for the giraffe or the ostrich in 

 their language ; yet, as the former exists in considerable 

 numbers in the angle formed by the Zambesi and Chobe, they 

 may have come from the north along the western ridge. The 

 Chobe would seem to have been too narrow to act as an 

 obstacle to the giraffe, supposing it to have come into that 

 district from the south; but the broad river into which thar 

 stream flows seems always to have presented an impassable 

 barrier to both the giraffe and the ostrich, though the}- 

 abound on its southern border, both in the Kalahari Desert 

 and the country of Mashona. 



We passed through large tracts of Mopane country, and my 

 men caught a great many of the birds called Korwe (Tockus 

 erythrorhynchus) in their breeding-places in holes in the mo- 

 pane-trees. On the 19th we passed the nest of a korwe, just 

 ready for the female to enter : the orifice was plastered on 

 both sides, but a space was left exactly the size of the bird's 

 body. The hole in the tree was in every case found to be 

 prolonged some distance upwards above the opening, and 

 thither the korwe always fled to escape being caught. The 

 first time that I saw this bird was at Kolobeng ; as I was 

 standing by a tree, a native exclaimed, " There is the nest of 

 a korwe." I saw only a slit, about half an inch wide and 

 three or four inches long, in a slight hollow of the tree. 

 Thinking the word korwe denoted some small animal, I 

 waited with interest to see what he would extract ; he broke 

 the clay which surrounded the slit, put his ami into the hole, 

 and brought out a Tockus, or red-beaked hornh'U, which he killed. 

 He informed me that when the female enters her nest the 

 male plasters up the entrance, leaving only a narrow slit by 

 which to feed his mate, exactly suiting the form of his beak. 

 The female makes a nest of her own feathers, laj's her eggs, 

 hatches them, and remains with the young till they are fully 

 fledged; during all which time, stated to be two or three 

 months, the male continues to feed her and the young family. 

 The prisoner generally becomes quite fat, while the poor 

 slave of a husband gets so lean that on any sudden lowering 

 of the temperature he is benumbed, falls down, and dies. 

 This is the month in which the female enters th 3 nest ; she 



