C. S. Webb—Some Notes on a Collecting Trip in Kenya 3


across. The country now becomes full of interest, as birds are numerous

as well as game, and the difference in bird-life in the Valley and above

the escarpment is remarkable. After following the edge for some

distance the line descends into the Rift Valley by a very difficult

course, and then reaches Lake Naivasha. This was my destination

as far as the railway was concerned, but from here I had to journey

about 25 miles north to the Aberdare Mountains over roads not easily

described without resorting to bad language.


Lake Naivasha is a beautiful sight and its shores are teeming with

bird-life, although very little in the way of rarities was to be seen.


The giant Acacia trees which surround the lake afford a home for

Blue-eared Glossy Starlings ( Lamprocolius chalybeus) and Superb

Starlings ( Spreo superbus), which are exceedingly numerous but do not

venture far from the lake. The Red-billed Wood-hoopoe ( Phoeniculus

purpureus) and White-fronted Bee-eater ( Melittoplnagus bullockoides)

are also common here. The only Sunbird I saw close to the lake was

Falkenstein’s ( Cinnyris venustus falkensteini), which is extremely

beautiful with its shining blue upper parts and breast and light buff

belly. On the water the Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata) is to be

seen in thousands, while in the reeds and among the water-lilies may be

seen the African Jacana or Lily-trotter ( Actophilus africanus) and the

Black Crake (Limnocorax flavirostra) . Waders are also fairly plentiful,

being mostly migrant Sandpipers from Europe, and the beautiful

Blacksmith Plover (. Hoplopterus armatus ) is to be met with sparingly.

But Ducks are getting scarce, as within recent years there has been

a boom in land sales round the edge of the lake, and houses are springing

up everywhere. These are mostly week-end residences for people in

Nairobi. It is completely spoiling this beautiful spot which was once

a sanctuary for all sorts of wildfowl, but now when the shooting season

opens one might imagine that there was another war on. The main

object seems to be to blot out as much as possible, even if you have to

throw the carcasses away, and a man who can boast that he has shot

fifty or more Ducks in a day imagines that he has done something really

clever. It is little wonder that few Ducks breed on Lake Naivasha now,

and the rarer kinds are almost non-existent. The country between

the lake and the escarpment some 10 miles across, known as the



