196 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
colored tree snake, two puff adders, and two seven-foot 
cobras. One of the latter three times ‘'spat’’ or ejected its 
poison at us, the poison coming out from the fangs like white 
films or threads, to a distance of several feet. A few years 
ago the singular power of this snake, and perhaps of certain 
other African species, thus to eject the poison at the face of 
an assailant was denied by scientists; but it is now well 
known. Selous had already told me of an instance which 
came under his own observation; and Tarlton had once been 
struck in the eyes and for the moment nearly blinded by the 
poison. He found that to wash the eyes with milk was of 
much relief. On the bigger puff adder, some four feet long, 
were a dozen ticks, some swollen to the size of cherries; ap¬ 
parently they were disregarded by their sluggish and deadly 
host. Heller trapped some jackals, of two species; and two 
striped hyenas, the first we had seen; apparently more timid 
and less noisy beasts than their bigger spotted brothers. 
One day Kermit had our first characteristic experience 
with a honey bird; a smallish bird, with its beak like a gros¬ 
beak’s and its toes like a wood-pecker’s, whose extraordinary 
habits as a honey guide are known to all the natives of Africa 
throughout its range. Kermit had killed an eland bull, and 
while he was resting, his gun-bearers drew his attention to 
the calling of the honey bird in a tree near by. He got up, 
and as he approached the bird, it flew to another tree in front 
and again began its twitter. This was repeated again and 
again as Kermit walked after it. Finally the bird darted 
round behind his followers, in the direction from which they 
had come; and for a moment they thought it had played them 
false. But immediately afterward they saw that it had merely 
overshot its mark, and had now flown back a few rods to 
