426 RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO [ch. xiv 
some in a grove of fairly big acacias, but they instantly 
dropped to the earth and galloped 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 
evidently distrusted the carrion feeders, for they attacked 
and drove off every kite or vulture that crossed what 
they considered the prohibited zone. They also harassed 
the marabous, but with more circumspection ; for the 
big storks were short-tempered, and rather daunted the 
spurwings by the way they opened their enormous beaks 
at them. The fish eagles fed exclusively on fish, as far 
as we could tell, and there were piles of fish-bones and 
heads under their favourite perches. Once I saw one 
