is put into the water
while the bird skims along the surface, and scoops up any little insects
it meets. It has great length of wing, and can continue its flight with
perfect ease, the wings acting, though kept above the level of the body.
The wonder is, how this plowing of the surface of the water can be so
well performed as to yield a meal, for it is usually done in the dark.
Like most aquatic feeders, they work by night, when insects and fishes
rise to the surface. They have great affection for their young,
its amount being increased in proportion to the helplessness of the
offspring.

There are also numbers of spoonbills, nearly white in plumage; the
beautiful, stately flamingo; the Numidian crane, or demoiselle, some of
which, tamed at Government House, Cape Town, struck every one as most
graceful ornaments to a noble mansion, as they perched on its pillars.
There are two cranes besides--one light blue, the other also light blue,
but with a white neck; and gulls ('Procellaria') of different sizes
abound.

One pretty little wader, an avoset, appears as if standing on stilts,
its legs are so long; and its bill seems bent the wrong way, or upward.
It is constantly seen wading in the shallows, digging up little slippery
insects, the peculiar form of the bill enabling it to work them easily
out of the sand. When feeding, it puts its head under the water to
seize the insect at the bottom, then lifts it up quickly, making a rapid
gobbling, as if swallowing a wriggling worm.

The 'Parra Africana' runs about on the surface, as if walking on water,
catching insects. It too has long, thin legs, and extremely long toes,
for the purpose of enabling it to stand on the floating lotus-leaves
and other aquatic plants. When it stands on a lotus-leaf five inches in
diameter, the spread of the toes, acting on the principle of snow-shoes,
occupies all the surface, and it never sinks, though it obtains a
livelihood, not by swimming or flying, but by walking on the water.

Water-birds, whose prey or food requires a certain aim or action in one
direction, have bills quite straight in form, as the heron and snipe;
while those which are intended to come in contact with hard substances,
as breaking shells, have the bills gently curved, in order that the
shock may not be communicated to the brain.

The Barotse valley contains great numbers of large black geese.* They
may be seen every where walking slowly about, feeding. They have a
st