TO LAKE NAIVASHA 
211 
graceful, with its pale flowering crown; and they are typ¬ 
ical of the tropics, and their mere-sight suggests a vertical 
sun and hot, ’steaming swamps, where great marsh beasts 
feed and wallow and bellow, amidst a teeming reptilian life. 
A fringe of papyrus here and there adds much to the beauty 
of a lake, and also to the beauty of the river pools, where 
clumps of them grow under the shade of the vine-tangled 
tropical trees. 
The open waters of the lagoons were covered with water- 
lilies, bearing purple or sometimes pink flowers. Across the 
broad lily pads ran the curious ^'lily trotters,’’ or jacanas, 
richly colored birds, with toes so long and slender that the 
lily pads support them without sinking. They were not 
shy, and their varied coloring—a bright chestnut being 
the most conspicuous hue—and singular habits made them 
very conspicuous. There was a wealth of bird life in the 
lagoons. Small gulls, somewhat like our black-headed 
gull, but with their hoods gray, flew screaming around us. 
Black and white kingfishers, tiny red-billed kingfishers, with 
colors so brilliant that they flashed like jewels in the sun, and 
brilliant green bee-eaters with chestnut breasts perched 
among the reeds. Spur-winged plover clamored as they 
circled overhead near the edges of the water. Little rails and 
red-legged water hens threaded the edges of the papyrus, 
and grebes dived in the open water. A giant heron, the Go¬ 
liath, flew up at our approach; and there were many smaller 
herons and egrets, white or parti-colored. There were small, 
dark cormorants, and larger ones with white throats; and 
African ruddy ducks, and teal and big yellow-billed ducks, 
somewhat like mallards. Among the many kinds of ducks 
was one which made a whistling noise with its wings as 
