33^ 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
Unfortunately though such a fine looking bird it is very poor eating. The 
flesh is dark, coarse and strong in flavour. 
A more eatable bird is the very pretty Egyptian goose which is a connecting 
link between the geese and ducks. The handsome Sarcidiornis (sometimes 
called the knob-nosed goose) is a remarkable bird, by some thought to be 
a duck by others an intermediate link between the geese and ducks. It has 
a blunt spur on the wrist of the wing, a plumage in the male of white and 
iridescent black with a brilliant speculum in the wing of blue green. It is 
fairly abundant on large sheets of water in British Central Africa. 
The tree ducks are represented by at least three species. I cannot find any 
confirmation either by observation or native report of the idea that these birds 
build their nests in holes of trees though I should not like to aver the contrary. 
They are, however, ordinarily met with in large numbers in marshy districts 
where trees are altogether absent and my own impression is they nest amongst 
the reeds. They make a curious whistling noise as a call or as a signal of 
danger. The genus Anas is actually represented by two specimens, the Anas 
sparsa and A. xanthorhyncha. There is also a true teal. The other ducks belong 
to several African genera. The red-beaked Pcecilonetta is one of the most 
delicious ducks for eating I have ever met with. It might well rival the canvas- 
back duck of America. Nyroca, a quaint and pretty little black duck with 
yellow eyes and a slight crest, is allied to our English pochard. 
The cranes are well represented though by two species at most. Through¬ 
out all the low-lying parts of the country the beautiful crowned crane is present 
and so far as recorded specimens go it is the only crane of which the existence 
in Central Africa is absolutely established, but I have heard on certain plateaux 
and mountains of the existence of a second kind of crane, and have actually 
seen specimens of this at a distance of perhaps eighty yards on the swamp 
at the top of Zomba mountain where the river Mlungusi takes its rise. So 
far as I could judge this bird resembled the Stanley crane of South Africa 
(Grus paradisea). 
The crowned crane is easily domesticated and a more admirable guest it 
would be impossible to entertain in one’s garden. Apart from its extraordinary 
beauty and grace it spends its time searching for insects and grubs of all kinds 
