THE GUASO NYERO 
281 
uttering their musical call, while their great wings flapped 
in measured beats. Wing shooting with the rifle, even 
at such large birds of such slow and regular flight, is never 
easy, and they were rather far off; but with the last car¬ 
tridge in my magazine—the fifth—I brought one whirl¬ 
ing down through the air, the bullet having pierced his 
body. It was a most beautiful bird, black, white, and 
chestnut, with an erect golden crest, and long, lanceolate 
gray feathers on the throat and breast. 
There were waterbuck and impalla in this swamp, 
I tried to get a bull of the former but failed. Several times 
I was within fifty yards of doe impalla and cow water- 
buck, with their young, and watched them as they fed and 
rested, quite unconscious of my presence. Twice I saw stein- 
buck, on catching sight of me, lie down, hoping to escape 
observation. The red coat of the steinbuck is rather con¬ 
spicuous, much more so than the coat of the duiker; yet it 
often tries to hide from possible foes. 
Late in the afternoon of September 3, Cuninghame and 
Heller, with the main safari, joined me, and I greeted 
them joyfully; while my men were equally pleased to see 
their fellows, each shaking hands with his especial friends. 
Next morning we started toward Meru, heading north-east, 
toward the foot-hills of Kenia. The vegetation changed 
its character as we rose. By the stream where we had 
camped grew the great thorn-trees with yellow-green trunks 
which we had become accustomed to associate with the 
presence of herds of game. Out on the dry flats were 
other thorns, weazened little trees, or mere scrawny bushes, 
with swellings like bulbs on the branches and twigs, and 
the long thorns far more conspicuous than the scanty foli- 
