64 CAMP AT ASHBIRAH.

ally came across the pretty little green monkey {cercopitheais grisco-viridis), generally met with only in thick jungle, and near the banks of rivers. We had bought several in Cairo some years before, and taken them to England, where they proved most amusing pets. Two I had, thrived very well for three winters in a stable ; after which I gave them to the Zoological Society in Regent's Park, where they very soon died.

The country gradually gave more promise of game, the trees became more numerous, and the covert thicker. To our right was a range of mountains clothed to their summits with trees, among them baobabs, as well as other varieties, some of considerable size.

We spent our third night in the dry bed of the Gash, close to a large encampment of mat huts, belonging to the Beni-Amer tribe, and called Ashbirah, — a very picturesque spot.

There was abundance of dry grass ; and numbers of sheep and goats, as well as large herds of cattle, were grazing on it for some miles round the village.

Our Arabs declared, for some reason only known to themselves, that Haikota was too far off to reach that night ; and the next morning we discovered it was only three-quarters of an hour farther on, at which we were much annoyed, as it gave us the trouble of packing up our traps, only to unpack them again almost immediately.

Partridges were very numerous, a species of francolin ; and in the long grass, and dwarf dhoiini-''Am jungle, where we found them, they rose well, and afforded capital sport. In open places they generally run on ahead of the sportsman, and are most unwilling to rise ; reminding one of the habits of the French partridge at home. We shot, too, a fine male specimen of the Abyssinian hornbill {Biizaros Abassbiiciis), or aboti giimba as it is called by the natives. It is a most curious-