BIRDS. 235 



been anticipated, and I feel certain that the lessons of 

 cleanliness rigidly instilled by my mother in cliildhood, 

 helped to maintain that respect which these people 

 entertain for European ways. It is questionable 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 ar delta is seen in flocks, 

 settling on the backs of large herds of buffaloes, and 

 followitig them on the wing When 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 helpless 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 skims 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 surface of the water can be so well performed as to 



