UGANDA 
876 
[ch. xm 
Then for two or three days we passed over low hills 
and through swampy valleys, the whole landscape 
covered by a sea of elephant-grass, the close-growing, 
coarse blades more than twice the height of a man on 
horseback. Here and there it was dotted with groves 
of strange trees ; in these groves monkeys of various 
kinds—some black, some red-tailed, some auburn— 
chattered as they raced away among the branches; 
there were brilliant rollers and bee-eaters ; little green 
and yellow parrots, and grey parrots with red tails ; 
and many- coloured butterflies. Once or twice we saw 
the handsome, fierce, short-tailed eagle, the bateleur 
eagle, and scared one from a reedbuck fawn it had 
killed. Among the common birds there were black 
drongos and musical bush shrikes; small black magpies 
with brown tails ; white-headed kites and slate-coloured 
sparrow-hawks; palm swifts; big hornbills; blue and 
mottled kingfishers, which never went near the water, 
and had their upper mandibles red and their under ones 
black; barbets, with swollen, saw-toothed bills, their 
plumage iridescent purple above and red below; bulbuls, 
also dark purple above and red below, which whistled 
and bubbled incessantly as they hopped among the 
thick bushes, behaving much like our own yellow¬ 
breasted chats ; and a multitude of other birds, beautiful 
or fantastic. There were striped squirrels too, reminding 
us of the big Rocky Mountain chipmunk or Say’s chip¬ 
munk, but with smaller ears and a longer tail. 
Christmas Day we passed on the march. There is 
not much use in trying to celebrate Christmas unless 
there are small folks to hang up their stockings on 
Christmas Eve, to rush gleefully in at dawn next morn¬ 
ing to open the stockings, and after breakfast to wait in 
hopping expectancy until their elders throw open the 
