HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 24 7 
the glass, this oryx appeared distinctly smaller than 
Oryx beisa, of a warmer red in pelt and with shorter 
horn. Then the restless hartebeests took him right 
away. 
We walked into a genet, which, after a hot chase 
(once all but run into in the open), escaped by getting 
to ground. 
Button-quails swarmed in the rushy straths, the same 
little birds we had seen in such abundance at Baringo— 
the kurrichaine hemipode ( Turnix lepurana )—and the 
SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE LOW-RISING SUN. 
francolins also differed from those of the Athi. Here 
among thick scrub we sprang a big dark-brown species, 
Francolinus schuetti, and also observed the large bare- 
throated spur-fowl ( Pternistes infuscatus). Bird-life, 
indeed, was on a wholly different plane, richer, or at 
least more in evidence than on the higher table-lands. 
The rollers, for example, were here the beautiful African 
lilac-breasted Coracias caudatus , with elongated tail- 
feathers (as shown in the sketch), replacing the European 
roller that we had observed near Nairobi. Similarly, the 
hoopoes at Simba all belonged to the Ethiopian race, 
Upujpa africana , a species new to me, and easily distin¬ 
guished by its dark, unspotted wing and dull-red body- 
colour. The British hoopoe, like the British roller, 
