434 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
of living in the tall timber, and never going on the ground 
except for a few yards, as in East Africa, here on the Nile 
they sought to escape danger by flight over the ground, in 
the scrub. Kermit found some in a grove of fairly big 
acacias, but they instantly dropped to the earth and gal¬ 
loped off among the dry, scattered bushes and small thorn- 
trees. Kermit also shot a twelve-foot crocodile in which 
he found the remains of a big heron. 
One morning we saw from camp a herd of elephants in 
a piece of unburned swamp. It was a mile and a half 
away in a straight line, although we had to walk three 
miles to get there. There were between forty and fifty 
of them, a few big cows with calves, the rest half-grown 
and three-quarters-grown animals. Over a hundred white 
herons accompanied them. From an ant-hill to leeward 
we watched them standing by a mud hole in the swamp; 
evidently they now and then got a whiff from our camp, 
for they were continually lifting and curling their trunks. 
To see if by any chance there was a bull among them we 
moved them out of the swamp by shouting; the wind 
blew hard and as they moved they evidently smelled the 
camp strongly, for all their trunks went into the air; and 
off they went at a rapid pace, half of the herons riding on 
them, while the others hovered over and alongside, like a 
white cloud. Two days later the same herd again made 
its appearance. 
Spur-winged plover were nesting near camp, and evi¬ 
dently distrusted the carrion feeders, for they attacked and 
drove off every kite or vulture that crossed what they consid¬ 
ered the prohibited zone. They also harassed the marabous, 
but with more circumspection; for the big storks were short- 
