126 
GAME-BIRDS. 
four -feet -high grasses, is from three to four miles 
broad, and probably twenty miles long, evidently once 
forming part of Victoria Nyanza. We counted four- 
teen rhinoceros upon the plain below ; they were so 
numerous that while marching they were often within 
gunshot, affording us excellent sport had we chosen 
to follow them up. Instead of being frightened, one 
of these rhinoceros walked up towards me till I whistled 
at sixty paces, which was close enough; but the bul- 
let from one of the men's rifles only made him put 
a twist in his tail and trot off proudly over the grassy 
plain for three miles, tripping repeatedly, and halting 
for an instant to give himself a shake, as if he had been 
stung. No elephants were seen — it was too open a 
country for them ; hyena were rarely heard ; porcu- 
pine-quills were picked up in the woods ; serpents, we 
saw few or none ; beeswax was never met with, though 
hives made out of logs were occasionally. Of game- 
birds the most plentiful was the guinea-fowl near the 
cultivations. The natives of Usui will not eat the 
fowl, but the Walinga, a class of people who work in 
iron and its nodules, have no objection. Florikan were 
shot; also a species of partridge quite new to me. I 
was attracted by their curious gait in running with 
their bodies thrown back : their call, too, was strange 
• — "cock, cock, ko-cock," or " chick-a-chick, chick-a- 
chick," not unlike the Himalayan cheer -pheasant's 
voice ; our Seedees called it the " Booee." Its throat 
and round the eyes were an orange red; one was 
double-spurred, and weighed 1^ lb. 
While delayed by the sultan of Usui for fifteen 
days in settling his tax, we found the above partridge 
amongst the bushes of the valley; also numbers of 
