TO LAKE NAIVASHA 
251 
Water-lilies, Lake Naivasha 
From a photograph by Edmund Heller 
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 colored birds, with toes so long and slender that the 
lily pads would support them without sinking. They 
were not shy, and their varied coloring—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, somewhat like our black¬ 
headed gull, but with their hoods gray, flew screaming 
around us. Black and white kingfishers, tiny red-billed 
kingfishers, with colors so brilliant that they flashed like 
jewels in the sun, and brilliant green bee-eaters with chest¬ 
nut breasts perched among the reeds. Spur-winged plover 
clamored 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 particolored. 
