THE KORWE'S NEST. 573 



central valley may easily be accounted for : they would 

 be such an easy prey to the natives in their canoes at the 

 periods of inundation ; but one cannot so readily account 

 lor the total absence of the giraffe and the ostrich on the 

 high open lands of the Batoka, north of the Zambesi, 

 unless we give credence to the native report which bounds 

 the country still further north by another network of 

 waters near I,ake Shuia, and suppose that it also 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 Leeambye and Chdbe, 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 that 

 stream flows seems always to have presented an impass- 

 able barrier to both the giraffe and the ostrich, though 

 they 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 buds called Korwe 

 (Tockus erythrorhynchus) in their breeding-places, which 

 were in holes in the mopane-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 of a heart shape, and 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. 

 In another nest we found that one white egg, much like that 

 of a pigeon, was laid, and the bird dropped another when 

 captured. She had four besides in the ovarium. The 

 first time that I saw this bird was at Kolobeng, where I 

 had gone to the forest for some timber. Standing by a 

 tree, a native looked behind me, and exclaimed, " There 

 is the nest of a korwe." I saw a slit only, 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 arm into the hole, and brought out a Tockus, or 

 red-beaked hornbill, which he killed. He informed me 

 that when the female enters her nest she submits to a 



