A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 
105 
The flocks were feeding 
in Heatley’s grain-fields, 
and he was threatening 
vengeance upon them. I 
was sorry, for the male 
birds certainly have hab¬ 
its of peculiar interest. 
They were not shy, al¬ 
though if we approached 
too near them in their 
favorite haunts, the grass¬ 
land adjoining the papy¬ 
rus beds, they would fly off 
and perch on the tops of 
the papyrus stems. The 
long tail hampers the bird 
in its flight, and it is often 
held at rather an angle The whydah finch 
downward, giving the bird From a P hot °g ra * h b J - Alden Loving 
a peculiar and almost insect-like appearance. But the 
marked and extraordinary peculiarity was the custom the 
c.ocks had of 
dancing in arti¬ 
ficially made 
dancing-rings. 
For a mile and 
a half beyond 
our camp, down 
the course of 
the Kamiti, the 
grassland at the 
edge of the pa¬ 
pyrus was thick¬ 
ly strewn with 
these dancing- 
rings. Each 
was about two 
Whydah birds’ dancing-ring 
Froi7i a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt 
