I was pleased to hear the long-forgotten cry of alarm of the canaries in the woods, and observed one warbling forth its song, and keeping in motion from side to side, as these birds do in the cage.  We saw also tame pigeons; and the Barotse, who always take care to exalt Santuru, reminded us that this chief had many doves, and kept canaries which had reddish heads when the birds attained maturity.  Those we now see have the real canary color on the breast, with a tinge of green; the back, yellowish green, with darker longitudinal bands meeting in the centre; a narrow dark band passes from the bill over the eye and back to the bill again.

The birds of song here set up quite a merry chorus in the mornings, and abound most near the villages.  Some sing as loudly as our thrushes, and the king-hunter (’Halcyon Senegalensis’) makes a clear whirring sound like that of a whistle with a pea in it.  During the heat of the day all remain silent, and take their siesta in the shadiest parts of the trees, but in the cool of the evening they again exert themselves in the production of pleasant melody.  It is remarkable that so many songbirds abound where there is a general paucity of other animal life.  As we went forward we were struck by the comparative absence of game and the larger kind of fowls.  The rivers contain very few fish.  Common flies are not troublesome, as they are wherever milk is abundant; they are seen in company with others of the same size and shape, but whose tiny feet do not tickle the skin, as is the case with their companions.  Mosquitoes are seldom so numerous as to disturb the slumbers of a weary man.

But, though this region is free from common insect plagues, and from tsetse, it has others.  Feeling something running across my forehead as I was falling asleep, I put up the hand to wipe it off, and was sharply stung both on the hand and head; the pain was very acute.  On obtaining a light, we found that it had been inflicted by a light-colored spider, about half an inch in length, and, one of the men having crushed it with his fingers, I had no opportunity of examining whether the pain had been produced by poison from a sting or from its mandibles.  No remedy was applied, and the pain ceased in about two hours.  The Bechuanas believe that there is a small black spider in the country whose bite is fatal.  I have not met with an instance in which death could be traced to this insect, though a very large black, hairy spider, an inch and a quarter long and three quarters of an inch broad, is frequently seen, having a process at the end of its front claws similar to that at the end of the scorpion’s tail, and when the bulbous portion of it is pressed, the poison may be seen oozing out from the point.

We have also spiders in the south which seize their prey by leaping upon it from a distance of several inches.  When alarmed, they can spring about a foot away from the object of their own fear.  Of this kind there are several varieties.