156 
TREKKING 
[CH. VII 
nesting in burrows on the open plains round about. 
Mearns got a white egg and a nest at the end of a little 
burrow two feet long ; wounded, the birds ran into 
holes or burrows. They sang attractively on the wing, 
often at night. The plover-like coursers—very pretty 
birds—continually circled round us with querulous 
clamour. Gorgeously coloured, diminutive sunbirds, of 
many different kinds, were abundant; they had an 
especial fondness for the gaudy flowers of the tall mint 
which grew close to the river. We got a small cobra, 
less than eighteen inches long ; it had swallowed another 
snake almost as big as itself; unfortunately the head of 
the swallowed snake was digested, but the body looked 
like that of a young puff-adder. 
The day after reaching this camp 1 rode off for a 
hunt, accompanied by my two gun-bearers and with a 
dozen porters following, to handle whatever 1 killed. 
One of my original gun-bearers, Mahomet, though a 
good man in the field, had proved in other respects so 
unsatisfactory that he had been replaced by another, a 
Wakamba heathen named Gouvimali. I could not 
remember his name until, as a mnemonic aid, Kermit 
suggested that I think of Gouverneur Morris, the old 
Federalist statesman, whose life I had once studied. 
He was a capital man for the work. 
Half a mile from camp I saw a buck tommy with a 
good head, and as we needed his delicious venison for 
our own table, I dismounted, and after a little care 
killed him, as he faced me at two hundred and ten 
yards. Sending him back by one of the porters, I rode 
on toward two topi we saw far in front. But there 
were zebra, hartebeest, and wildebeest in between, all 
of which ran; and the topi proved wary. 1 was still 
walking after them when we made out two eland bulls 
