AFRICA. i8x 
barrelled fufee I brought them both to the 
ground. 
Become poGefTor of an objeft fo valuable in 
my eyes, could I quit abruptly, after I had ob- 
tained it, the complaifant hofts to whom I was 
indebted for it? No: — gratitude, friendfliip, 
and even decency, required that I fliould re- 
main fome days with them, and I obeyed the 
didates of thefe fentlments. 
Though I referve for my ornithology the 
particular defcriptlon of thefe birds, I cannot 
refrain from giving the reader a fhort flcetch of 
it. The denomination of Slange-Hah'VQogelj 
(fnake-necked bird), which my Hottentots 
gave to the anhinga, charafterifes it in a very 
fimple and accurate manner. BufFon, who 
was equally ftruck with the conformation pecu- 
liar to birds of this kind, has delineated them 
by a fjmilar expreffion. " The anhinga," fays 
he, " exhibits a reptile grafted on the body of 
a bird." Indeed there is no perfon, who, 
upon feeing the head and neck only of an an- 
hinga, while the reft of the body is hid among 
the foliage of the tree on which it is perched, 
would not take it for one of thofe ferpents ac- 
cuftomed to climb and refide iu trees ; and the 
N3 1$^^ 
