LAKE NO 
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were undoubtedly “Neumann’s,” and, being anxious to 
procure a specimen or two for myself, I asked their owner 
—a seven-foot grisly savage with an eagle glance—• 
to guide me to the place where he had killed them. His 
reply (and I was at pains to understand it) was that 
the spot was distant three days’ journey, and he added:— 
“ I also am a hunter the same as you, and I hunt alone 
with my dog and spear.” A grand old sportsman, 
surely! Big-game, however, is treated elsewhere, and this 
chapter intended rather to concern itself with the minor 
forms of life and with the daily work of field-naturalists. 
I remember my first evening at Lake No—it was 
on February 8th, 1913. By the water-side a low 
thorn-tree (which was completely enshrouded in a purple- 
blossomed liana) bore a great stick-built nest, surmounted 
by a thatch of dry reeds that resembled a haycock. On 
throwing a clod, out darted from a lateral exit facing the 
river a hammerhead (sfoftus umbretta), which I shot. 
Abdul removed half a cartload of dry reeds and reported 
the nest empty. I knew better, and directed the dis¬ 
mantling to proceed. Beneath the superincumbent 
thatch was a double-storied, stick-built structure, and in 
the lower chamber lay three white eggs, in size and shape 
resembling a sparrow-hawk’s. They now repose in the 
National Collection. Meanwhile, a fierce family-feud had 
arisen between three fiscal shrikes close by; and so intent 
were they on settling mutual differences, careless of my 
presence, that I secured the trio with one shot from the 
•410 “Tomtit gun.” A mixed bag had been increased 
by several other beautiful and interesting birds — a 
catalogue of which would certainly bore the general 
reader (besides which, some were total strangers to me)— 
when among heavy cane-grass I almost trod on a wart- 
hog. The rush of an unseen beast got on Mahomed 
Maghazi’s nerves, and when,, a few minutes later, we 
found ourselves pretty well mixed up with a beautifully 
mottled copper-yellow snake—(Mahomed swore it jabbed 
