THROUGH THE KEDONG VALLEY, B.E.A. 159 
July 16, 1915. — Rose at 5.30 ; it was bitterly cold, being 
7000 feet above sea-level (Snowdon is 3571). Breakfasted 
by the camp fire whilst our tents were being pulled down, 
and got away before 7 a.m. After going a few miles we were 
descending a hillside when my companion spotted a fishing 
eagle (Pandion halicetus) down in the middle of a great plain 
that stretched away to the lake shore. It very soon saw us, 
and, rising on its great five-foot pinions, slowly flew in the 
direction of the lake. We watched it through the glasses, 
and apparently it pitched in a euphorbia tree half-way up 
a rocky cliff-like escarpment. Whilst the safari continued 
its way, we followed after the bird, and as we approached the 
tree I could make out a nest with apparently the bird on it. 
At the same time my companion fired at some rock hyrax 
(Procavia Brucei maculata ) and killed two females. With two 
such loud reports going off almost immediately below its nest 
one would have expected the bird to leave — but no. 
I climbed the escarpment till I was almost level with the 
huge nest, and the bird’s head distinctly visible some thirty 
feet from where I stood. The tree was like a huge cactus, 
with pear-shaped leaves from which other pear-shaped leaves 
sprouted. With bits of earth I pelted the bird, and though one 
pellet fell on her back and another hit her on the head, she 
merely stood up in the nest. We both agreed that we had 
never known a bird sit so tight, and I was convinced that it 
must be an almost fledged young one ; and so it turned out 
to be, as a little later we saw the parent birds soaring up in the 
blue nearly a mile away. We put up a big owl, probably Bubo 
maculosus, but failed to find any nest among the rocky crevices 
in the crags. 
After this diversion we plodded on our way across many 
miles of grassland and thorny scrub. An interesting feature 
of these acacia bushes was that almost every dried black 
fruit had a hole below the pair of large white thorns, and if 
you attempted to reach a nest in the bush or brushed against 
it, out swarmed small ants from these holes and ran hither and 
thither with their acutely-pointed plump little abdomens 
jerking up and down ; as soon as they had crowded on to one’s 
sleeve or arm they commenced to bite fiercely. I am not 
