CH. IX] 
SPRINGHAAS 
221 
when perched on twigs. Stopping at the Government 
farm (which is most interesting ; the results obtained in 
improving the native sheep, goats, and cattle by the use 
of imported thoroughbred bulls and rams have been 
astonishingly successful), we saw the little long-tailed, 
red-billed, black and white whydahs flitting around the 
outbuildings as familiarly as sparrows. Water birds of 
all kinds thronged the meadows bordering the papyrus, 
and swam and waded among the water-lilies; sacred 
ibis, herons, beautiful white spoonbills, darters, cor¬ 
morants, Egyptian geese, ducks, coots, and water-hens. 
I got up within rifle-range of a flock of the queer ibis 
stork, black and white birds with curved yellow bills, 
naked red faces, and wonderful purple tints on the 
edges and the insides of the wings. With the little 
Springfield I shot one on the ground and another on the 
wing, after the flock had risen. 
That night Kermit and Dr. Mearns went out with 
lanterns and shot-guns, and each killed one of the 
springhaas, the jumping hares, which abounded in the 
neighbourhood. These big, burrowing animals, which 
progress by jumping like kangaroos, are strictly noc¬ 
turnal, and their eyes shine in the glare of the lanterns. 
Next day I took the Fox gun, which had already on 
ducks, guinea-fowl, and francolin, shown itself an 
exceptionally hard-hitting and close-shooting weapon, 
and collected various water birds for the naturalists; 
among others, a couple of Egyptian geese. I also shot 
a white pelican with the Springfield rifle; there was a 
beautiful rosy flush on the breast. 
Here we again got news of the outside world. While 
on safari the only newspaper which any of us ever saw 
was the Owego Gazette , which Loring, in a fine spirit 
of neighbourhood loyalty, always had sent to him in his 
