220 
TRAVELS IN 
beak is black ; the ridge of the upper mandible, and the up*, 
per part of the toes, red; head, neck, and abdomen, cinereous 
blue ] wing and tail feathers, deep violet blue ; back feathers 
green, edged with dusky brown ; shoulders and covering fea- 
thers of the wings of a metallic lustre and iridescent. The 
mountain goose, the Egyptian goose, and the mountain duck, 
were seen in considerable numbers. The last species answers 
to the description of the cana ; but there seems to be a mistake 
in giving the white head to the male, which is found only in 
the female. Several other aquatic birds were met with about 
the Sea-Cow river, attracted thither, no doubt, by the vast 
quantities of fish that it contained. Of these a species of cy- 
priiius of a silvery color was the most common ; and we 
caught also a species of silurus. The most remarkable of 
the birds were the platalea leucorodia, or white spoonbill, 
the great w^hite pelican, and the flamingo. We saw also 
the common crane {gnts\ the Numidian crane (virgo), and 
the heron {cinerea) ; the bald ibis icahus\ the Cape curlew, 
and the common coot. 
In the neighbourhood of such places as are most frequented 
by graminivorous animals, the carnivorous tribe are, as might 
naturally be expected, the most abundant. The peasantry 
were, however, much surprised that no more than one lion had 
been seen by the party among the reedy banks of the Sea-Cow 
river, a part of the country that has at all times been consi- 
dered as particularly infested by this animal, and where they 
are also of a much larger size as well as of a fiercer temper 
than those of the lower parts of the colony. The people of 
Sneuwberg are great sufferers from their frequent visits, parti- 
