THE BIRDS' SANCTUARY 233 impassable, was a line of trees, thick-growing, but thin and spare individually. Their boughs seemed interlaced, so dense was the growth, and the length of the grove was about 300 yards. The trees appeared to be standing in water, through which reedy grass rose in tufts.

At a distance it was speckled with pure white, grey, and black spots, which a closer acquaintance resolved into myriads of birds roosting or sitting on nests in the trees.

Thick as peas, it might have been expected that pandemonium would have existed, but it was far otherwise. All seemed to have settled down in mutual harmony, secure against every enemy except, doubtless, the snake. Great white birds rested in peace with black divers (there is no colour antipathy here !) ; grey ones and piebald intermingled at ease. Some waded below, and from far over the marsh sailed others in quest of the room which it seemed hopeless to find. More than one of these rookeries were passed, and it is a misfortune that the damp heat of the climate so damaged the films in the sanduk iswid that photographs resulted in failure.

Once again, as we twasted and turned, sometimes almost completing a circle, a long stretch of palmtrees reached out into the swamp. In amongst them were huts, becoming quite numerous, and extending almost down to the river, showing a confidence which would have been rudely shaken in the slave-raiding days. It was pleasant to note