scribe anything male, from a lion or an ele¬ 
phant to a bustard or a crocodile; “cow” 
being his expression for the female of these 
and all other creatures. As Gouvimali 
came running up to shake hands, his face 
wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed “G-o-o-d-e 
morning”; a phrase which he had picked 
up under the impression that it was a species 
of congratulation. 
As always when I have killed buffalo I 
was struck by the massive bulk of the great 
bull as he lay in death, and by the evident 
and tremendous muscular power of his big¬ 
boned frame. He looked what he was, a 
formidable beast. Thirty porters had to 
be sent out to bring to camp the head, 
hide, and meat. We found, by the way, 
that his meat made excellent soup, his 
kidneys a good stew, while his tongue was 
delicious. 
Next morning Kermit and I with the 
bulk of the safari walked back to our main 
camp, on the Nile, leaving Cuninghame 
and Heller where they were for a day, to 
take care of the buffalo skin. Each of us 
struck off across the country by himself, 
with his gunbearers. After walking five 
or six miles I saw a big rhino, three-quarters 
of a mile off. At this point the country was 
Vol. XLVIII.—27 
flat, the acacias very thinly scattered, and 
the grass completely burnt off, the green 
young blades sprouting; and there was no 
difficulty in making out, at the distance we 
did, the vast gray bulk of the rhino as it 
stood inertly under a tree. Drawing nearer 
we saw that it had a good horn, although 
not as good asKermit’s best; and approach¬ 
ing quietly to within forty yards I shot the 
beast. 
At the main camp we found that Mearns 
had made a fine collection of. birds in our 
absence; while Loring had taken a variety 
of excellent photos, of marabou, vultures, 
and kites feeding, and, above all, of a moni¬ 
tor lizard plundering the nest of a crocodile. 
The monitors were quite plentiful near 
camp. They are amphibious, carnivorous 
lizards of large size; they frequent the 
banks of the river, running well on the land, 
and sometimes even climbing trees, but tak¬ 
ing to the water when alarmed. They feed 
on mice and rats, other lizards, eggs, and 
fish; the stomachs of those we caught gener¬ 
ally contained fish, for they are expert swim¬ 
mers. One morning Loring surprised a 
monitor which had just uncovered some 
crocodile eggs on a small sandy beach. The 
eggs, about thirty in number, were buried 
281 
