142 
RED WATER 
The only other example I have seen was near Lake Rudolf, 
some few years ago. 
This bird has quite the most beautiful flight of any that 
I know, surpassing even the eagles and vultures. 
In South Africa the bird is very local. I would be interested 
to know if it is known from other parts of British East 
Africa. 
RED WATER 
By J. E. Mackenzie and T. M. Finlay 
A sample of water sent by Dr. R. van Someren, Kyetume 
S.S. camp, near Kampala, Uganda, for analysis, has provided 
results which may be of some interest. In the letter accom- 
panying the sample he says : 
‘ It comes from a crater lake out here and I am very 
curious to know what gives it the red colour. The lake looks 
like blood at times. It seems to be saturated NaCl with some 
(?) lime.’ 
The sample received had a distinct rose-pink colour. The 
bottle containing it was about three quarters full of liquid, 
and a small amount of crystalline solid had separated, probably 
owing to evaporation and lowering of temperature. 
The red colour was not separated from the water by filtration 
through ordinary filter paper, but it was removed by means 
of a Berkefeld filter. On microscopic examination of the red 
deposit on the Berkefeld candle, only disintegrated organic 
remains were seen. When mixtures of equal quantities of the 
water and nutrient agar were incubated at 25° and 80°C. there 
appeared on the sloped surface white growths of bacteria, 
which did not, however, develop either in an artificially pre- 
pared brine of the same composition as the red water or in 
ordinary culture media. The colour disappeared on addition 
of mineral acid or caustic alkali. It was not extracted by 
ether. Its absorption spectrum showed several bands in the 
green and blue regions. 
