ch. vi] HABITS OF KAVIRONDO CRANES 131 
grassland at the edge of the papyrus was thickly strewn 
with these dancing-rings. Each was about two feet in 
diameter, sometimes more, sometimes less. A tuft of 
growing grass, perhaps a foot high, was left in the 
centre. Over the rest of the ring the grass was cut off 
close by the roots, and the blades strewn evenly over 
the surface of the ring. The cock bird would alight in 
the ring and hop to a height of a couple of feet, wings 
spread and motionless, tail drooping, and the head 
usually thrown back. As he came down he might or 
might not give an extra couple of little hops. After a 
few seconds he would repeat the motion, sometimes 
remaining almost in the same place, at other times 
going forward during and between the hops so as finally 
to go completely round the ring. As there were many 
scores of these dancing-places within a comparatively 
limited territory, the effect was rather striking when a 
large number of birds were dancing at the same time. 
As one walked along, the impression conveyed by the 
birds continually popping above the grass and then 
immediately sinking back was somewhat as if a man 
was making peas jump in a tin tray by tapping on it. 
The favourite dancing times were in the early morning, 
and, to a less extent, in the evening. We saw dancing- 
places of every age, some with the cut grass which 
strewed the floor green and fresh, others with the grass 
dried into hay and the bare earth showing through. 
But the game we were after was the buffalo herd that 
haunted the papyrus swamp. As I have said before, 
the buffalo is by many hunters esteemed the most 
dangerous of African game. It is an enormously 
powerful beast with, in this country, a coat of black 
hair, which becomes thin in the old bulls, and massive 
horns, which rise into great bosses at the base, these 
