208 
TO LAKE NAIVASHA 
[CH. IX 
lake, and also to the beauty of the river pools, where 
clumps of them grow under the shade of the vine- 
tangled tropical trees. 
The open waters of the lagoons were covered with 
water-lilies, bearing purple or sometimes pink flowers. 
Across the broad lily-pads ran the curious “ lily trotters,” 
or jacanas—richly-coloured birds, with toes so long and 
slender that the lily-pads support them without sinking. 
They were not shy, and their varied colouring—a bright 
chestnut being the most conspicuous hue—and singular 
habits made them very conspicuous. There was a 
wealth of bird life in the lagoons. Small gulls, some¬ 
what like our black-headed gull, but with their hoods 
grey, flew screaming around us. Black and white king¬ 
fishers, tiny red-billed kingfishers, with colours so 
brilliant that they flashed like jewels in the sun, and 
brilliant green bee-eaters, with chestnut breasts, perched 
among the reeds. Spur-winged plover clamoured as they 
circled overhead, near the edges of the water. Little 
rails and red-legged water-hens threaded the edges of 
the papyrus, and grebes dived in the open water. A 
giant heron, the Goliath, flew up at our approach ; and 
there were many smaller herons and egrets, white or 
parti-coloured. There were small, dark cormorants, and 
larger ones with white throats ; and African ruddy 
ducks, and teal and big yellow-billed ducks, somewhat 
like mallards. Among the many kinds of ducks was 
one which made a whistling noise with its wings as it 
flew. Most plentiful of all were the coots, much 
resembling our common bald-pate coot, but with a pair 
of horns or papillae at the hinder end of the bare frontal 
space. 
There were a number of hippo in these lagoons. One 
afternoon, after four o’clock, I saw two standing half out 
