often showing us where buffaloes and elephants are, by perching on their backs.  Flocks of ducks, of which the kind called “Soriri” (Dendrocygna personata) is most abundant, being night feeders, meditate quietly by the small lagoons, until startled by the noise of the steam machinery.  Pelicans glide over the water, catching fish, while the Scopus (Scopus umbretta) and large herons peer intently into pools.  The large black and white spur-winged goose (a constant marauder of native gardens) springs up, and circles round to find out what the disturbance can be, and then settles down again with a splash.  Hundreds of Linongolos (Anastomus lamelligerus) rise on the wing from the clumps of reeds, or low trees (the Eschinomena, from which pith hats are made), on which they build in colonies, and are speedily high in mid-air.  Charming little red and yellow weavers (Ploceidae) remind one of butterflies, as they fly in and out of the tall grass, or hang to the mouths of their pendent nests, chattering briskly to their mates within.  These weavers seem to have “cock nests,” built with only a roof, and a perch beneath, with a doorway on each side.  The natives say they are made to protect the bird from the rain.  Though her husband is very attentive, we have seen the hen bird tearing her mate’s nest to pieces, but why we cannot tell.  Kites and vultures are busy overhead, beating the ground for their repast of carrion; and the solemn-looking, stately-stepping Marabout, with a taste for dead fish, or men, stalks slowly along the almost stagnant channels.  Groups of men and boys are searching diligently in various places for lotus and other roots.  Some are standing in canoes, on the weed-covered ponds, spearing fish, while others are punting over the small intersecting streams, to examine their sunken fish-baskets.

Towards evening, hundreds of pretty little hawks (Erythropus vespertinus) are seen flying in a southerly direction, and feeding on dragon-flies and locusts.  They come, apparently, from resting on the palm-trees during the heat of the day.  Flocks of scissor-bills (Rhyncops) are then also on the wing, and in search of food, ploughing the water with their lower mandibles, which are nearly half an inch longer than the upper ones.

At the north-eastern end of the marsh, and about three miles from the river, commences a great forest of palm-trees (Borassus AEthiopium).  It extends many miles, and at one point comes close to the river.  The grey trunks and green tops of this immense mass of trees give a pleasing tone of colour to the view.  The mountain-range, which rises close behind the palms, is generally of a cheerful green, and has many trees, with patches of a lighter tint among them, as if spots of land had once been cultivated.  The sharp angular rocks and dells on its sides have the appearance of a huge crystal broken; and this is so often the case in Africa, that