252 
ABUNDANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. 
Chap. XIV. 
and I feel certain that the lessons of cleanliness rigidly instilled 
by my mother in cliildhood, helped to maintain that respect 
wliich these people entertain for European ways. It is ques¬ 
tionable if a descent to barbarous ways ever elevates a man in 
the eyes of savages. 
When quite beyond the inhabited parts, we found the country 
abounding in animal life of every form. There are upwards of 
thirty species of birds on the river itself. Hundreds of the Ihis 
religiosa come dovm the Leeambye with the rising water, as 
they do on the Nile; then large wliite pelicans, in flocks of 
tlmee hundred at a time, following each other in long extending 
line, rising and falling as they fly, so regularly aU along, as to 
look like an extended coil of bflds; clouds of a black shell¬ 
eating bird, called Knongolo {Anastomus lamelligerus) ; also 
plovers, snipes, cmdews, and herons, without number. 
There are, besides the more common, some strange varieties. 
The pretty wliite ardetta is seen in flocks, settling on the backs 
of large herds of buffaloes, and following them on the wing 
when they run; while the kala {Textor erythrorliyncTius) is a 
better horseman, for it sits on the withers when the animal is at 
full speed. 
Then those strange birds the scissor-bills, with snow-white 
breast, jet-black coat, and red beak, sitting by day on the sand¬ 
banks, the very picture of comfort and repose. Their nests are 
only little hollows made on these same sandbanks, without any 
attempt at concealment; they watch them closely, and frighten 
away the marabou and crows from their eggs by feigned attacks 
at their heads. Wien man approaches their nests, they change 
their tactics, and, like the lapwing and ostrich, let one wing 
drop and make one leg limp, as if lame. The upper mandible 
being so much shorter than the lower, the young are more help¬ 
less than the stork in the fable with the flat dishes, and must 
have everything conveyed into the mouth by the parents, till 
they are able to provide for themselves. The lower mandible, 
as tliin as a paper-knife, is put into the water while the bird 
skims along the surface, and scoops up any little insects it 
meets. It has great length of wing, and can continue its flight 
with perfect ease, the wings acting, though kept above the 
level of the body. The wonder is, how this plougliing of the 
