WHERE ROOSEVELT WILL HUNT 



247 



type. One of them is particularly beau- 

 tiful, with a body of black, white, and 

 dove color and a crimson back. The 

 next ascent of the inevitable hill which 

 succeeds the marsh may lead one through 

 a more wooded country, where, among 

 many other flowering shrubs, grows a 

 species of mallow (Abutilon), with 

 blush-pink flowers in clusters, like dog- 

 roses in general appearance. 



The forests and marshes of Uganda 

 abound in remarkable monkeys and bril- 

 liantly-colored birds to a degree not com- 

 mon elsewhere in tropical Africa ; but the 

 Kingdom of Uganda, as may be imagined 

 from its relatively dense population — a 

 population once much thicker than today 

 —has been to a great extent denuded of 

 its big game, and it is unlikely the Presi- 

 dent will spend much time there. 



GORGEOUS DISPLAYS OF FLOWERS 



Some of the forest trees of Uganda 

 offer magnificent displays of flowers. 

 There is one, the Spathodea, with crim- 

 son-scarlet flowers larger than a break- 

 fast cup and not very dissimilar in shape. 

 These flowers grow in bunches like large 

 bouquets, and when in full blossom one 

 of these trees aflame with red light is a 

 magnificent spectacle. Other trees pre- 

 sent at certain seasons of the year a uni- 

 form mass of lilac-white flowerets, as 

 though they had been powdered from 

 above with a lavender-colored snow. 



The india-rubber trees and lianas have 

 white flowers, large and small, with yel- 

 low centers exhaling a delicious scent 

 like jasmine, but the blossom of one of 

 these rubber trees is vivid scarlet. The 

 Lonchocarpus trees have flowers in color 

 and shape like the Wistaria; from the 

 branches of the lofty eriodendrons de- 

 pend, on thread-like stalks, huge dull 

 crimson flowers composed of innumer- 

 able stamens surrounded by thick car- 

 mine petals. The Brythrina trees on the 

 edge of the forest seldom bear leaves and 

 flowers at the same time. When in a 

 leafless state they break out into a crim- 

 son-scarlet efflorescence of dazzling 

 beauty. The Pterocarpus trees have 

 large flowers of sulphur-yellow. 



Many creepers have blossoms of 

 orange, of greenish-white, pink, and 

 mauve. Some trees or creepers (C om- 

 bre turn racemosum) are like the Bou- 

 gainvillia, throwing out wreaths and 

 veils and cascades of the most exquisite 

 mauve or red-violet, where the color is 

 given by bracts, the flower itself being 

 crimson and of small size. 



Blue alone appears to be missing from 

 this gamut of color in the forest flowers, 

 though it is frequently present among 

 herbaceous shrubs or plants growing 

 close to the ground, and, so far as the 

 trees are concerned, is often supplied by 

 the beautiful species of turaco that par- 

 ticularly affect the forest, and by large 

 high-flying butterflies. 



Whatever may be the case in the 

 Congo basin, where the forests often ap- 

 pear sadly lifeless, the woodlands of 

 Uganda are full of color and noise from 

 the birds, beasts, and insects frequenting 

 them. Monkeys are singularly bold and 

 frequently show themselves. There is 

 the black-white colobus with the long 

 plume-tail which has been already de- 

 scribed ; there is a large greenish-black 

 Cercopithecus, and another species of the 

 same genus which is known as the 

 White-nosed monkey. This is a charm- 

 ing creature of bright colors — chestnut, 

 blue-black, yellow-green, and gray, with 

 a snow-white tip to its nose. I believe 

 its specific name is rufoviridis. Bright- 

 colored turacos are even more abundant 

 in these Uganda forests, and there are 

 green and red love-birds, gray parrots 

 with scarlet tails, and the usual barbets, 

 hornbills, shrikes, fly-catchers, bee-eaters, 

 rollers — all of them birds of bright plu- 

 mage or strange form. 



ENORMOUS BUT SLUGGISH PYTHONS AND 

 PUFF-ADDERS 



There are other forest creatures that 

 are not harmless sources of gratification 

 to the eve. Lying among the dead leaves 

 on the path may be the dreaded , puff- 

 adder, with its beautiful carpet-pattern 

 of pinkish gray, black, lemon-yellow, and 

 slaty blue, and with its awful head con- 

 taining poison glands more rapidly fatal 

 than those perhaps of any other viper. 



