402 FRUIT-TREKS AND BIRDS. 



state of surfeit from recent feeding, fall victims to their 

 fierce onslaught. These ants never make hills like the 

 white ant. Their nests are but a short distance beneath 

 the soil, which has the soft appearance of the abodes of 

 ants in England. Occasionally they construct galleries 

 over their path to the cells of the white ant, in order to 

 secure themselves from the heat of the sun during their 

 marauding expeditions. 



January i$th, 1855. — We descended, in one hour, from 

 the heights of Tala Mungongo. I counted the number of 

 paces made on the slope downward, and found them to be 

 sixteen hundred, which may give a perpendicular height 

 of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. Water boiled at 

 206 at Tala Mungongo above, and at 208 ° at the bottom 

 of the declivity, the air being as 72 ° in the shade in the 

 former case, and 94 in the latter. The temperature 

 generally throughout the day was from 94 to 97 ° in the 

 coolest shade we could find. 



The rivulets which cut up the valley of Cassange were 

 now dry ; but the Lui and Luare contained abundance of 

 rather brackish water. The banks are lined with palm, 

 wild date-trees, and many guavas, the fruit of which was 

 now becoming ripe. A tree much like the mango abounds, 

 but it does not yield fruit. In these rivers a kind of edible 

 mussel is plentiful, the shells of which exist in all the 

 alluvial beds of the ancient rivers, as far as the Kuruman. 

 The brackish nature of the water, probably enables it to 

 exist here. On the open grassy lawns, great numbers of a 

 species of lark are seen. They are black, with yellow 

 shoulders. Another black bird, with a long tail (Centropus 

 Senegalensis), floats awkwardly, with its tail in a perpen- 

 dicular position, over the long grass. It always chooses 

 the highest points, and is caught on them with bird-lime, 

 the long black tail-feathers being highly esteemed by the 

 natives for plumes. We saw here also the " I^ehututu " 

 (Tragopan Leadbeaterii), a large bird strongly resembling 

 a turkey ; it is black on the ground, but when it flies, the 

 outer half of the wings is white. It kills serpents, 

 striking them dexterously behind the head. It derives 

 its native name from the noise it makes, and it is found as 

 far as Kolobeng. Another species like it, is called the 

 Abyssinian hornbill. 



Before we reached Cassange, we were overtaken by the 

 Commandant, Senhor Carvalho, who was returning, with 



