enas prowled and howled round the camp, much to
every one’s amusement; they are such wary, cunning
beasts that only one was shot, and our men had no
delicacy in carrying it into camp for examination
and dissection. In India private servants would refuse
to touch such a piece of carrion.
The ugliest monster is the wild boar—head narrow
and long, with four warty protuberances, and the skin
between the two tusks as broad as it is between the
eyes. The mane is immense, but behind it there is
little or no hair; however, nothing looks prettier or
more like a race of Arab horses than a herd in full
flight going across the forest with erect heads and
straight-up tails. We saw a crocodile, the colour of
a tiger, lying on the bank of the Kingani, where
the spoor of hippopotamus was visible. We came
across very few chameleons or serpents, but saw a puff
adder 2^ feet long, with abruptly short tail and four
fangs. There were many species of lizards; one twelve
inches long, very handsome, with vermilion head and
shoulders, and bright-blue body. Shooting two of
these amongst some rocks cost us twelve cloths, as
I was told that I had encroached on sacred ground.
Eats, bugs, and musquitoes seldom gave us trouble.
During rain, frogs and crickets were deafening. Insects
and white ants (eaten by natives) seemed to enjoy
themselves by attacking us and the candle at night;
and small yellow butterflies, apple-green underneath,
fluttered in suspense over the edges of little puddles.
Of birds of song there were remarkably few: a
species of lark on the coast had a short sweet note.
Of game-birds, the ordinary guinea-fowl, weighing
31 to 3-| lb., was the most common, and ate deliciously
after being kept two days. Early in the
morning they roost lazily in tall trees, and in the
evening they may be found near cultivations, chasing
insects or grubbing up sweet potato. We killed
one rare species, red round the eyes and on the throat,
having a standing-up purple collar of loose skin, a
ridge of ostrich-like black feathers from the back of the
head to the nostrils, weight about 3 lb., and in running
it seemed to have a more compressed body than the
ordinary species. There is something peculiar about
the shape of the “merry-thought,” which differs from
that of a fowl. The best-flavoured bird we found was
the florikan, which has a rough gritty call ; but few
were shot, as they were extremely shy. Green pigeons
are handsome, and after they have fed on the wild
fig, no bird looks plumper on the table. Eock-pigeon,
snipe, quail, plover, and several species of partridge,
we shot occasionally; also a very pretty species of pintailed
dove found in Ugogo. Pigeons, generally white,
and not differing from those at home, are sometimes
kept as pets by the villagers. Of ostrich we saw only
one gang on the bare plains of Ugogo, where the
natives make handsome wreaths of their plumes; and
among the other birds seen were crested cranes, hawks,
a solitary raven or two, a few parrots, but scarcely
any crows. The natives capture all these beasts and
birds by means of pitfalls and nooses. The former are
cut like a wedge, most disagreeable to look down upon,
eight feet deep, and but one foot across the top, which
is coyly covered over. The nooses were formed of an
elastic bough, stripped of its branches, with the noose
hung perpendicularly, neatly concealed and placed in
an antelope-frequented track. Diminutive traps were