This Is A Most Difficult Bird To Catch When Disabled.
It Is Thoroughly Expert In Diving - Goes Down So Adroitly
And comes up again
in the most unlikely places, that the people, though most skillful
in the management of the
Canoes, can rarely secure them.
The rump of the darter is remarkably prolonged, and capable of being bent,
so as to act both as a rudder in swimming, and as a lever to lift the bird
high enough out of the water to give free scope to its wings.
It can rise at will from the water by means of this appendage.
The fine fish-hawk, with white head and neck, and reddish-chocolate
colored body, may also frequently be seen perched on the trees,
and fish are often found dead which have fallen victims to its talons.
One most frequently seen in this condition is itself a destroyer of fish.
It is a stout-bodied fish, about fifteen or eighteen inches long,
of a light yellow color, and gayly ornamented with stripes and spots.
It has a most imposing array of sharp, conical teeth outside the lips -
objects of dread to the fisherman, for it can use them effectually.
One which we picked up dead had killed itself by swallowing another fish,
which, though too large for its stomach and throat, could not be disgorged.
This fish-hawk generally kills more prey than it can devour.
It eats a portion of the back of the fish, and leaves the rest
for the Barotse, who often had a race across the river
when they saw an abandoned morsel lying on the opposite sand-banks.
The hawk is, however, not always so generous, for, as I myself was a witness
on the Zouga, it sometimes plunders the purse of the pelican.
Soaring over head, and seeing this large, stupid bird fishing beneath,
it watches till a fine fish is safe in the pelican's pouch;
then descending, not very quickly, but with considerable noise of wing,
the pelican looks up to see what is the matter, and, as the hawk comes near,
he supposes that he is about to be killed, and roars out "Murder!"
The opening of his mouth enables the hawk to whisk the fish out of the pouch,
upon which the pelican does not fly away, but commences fishing again,
the fright having probably made him forget he had any thing in his purse.
A fish called mosheba, about the size of a minnow, often skims along
the surface for several yards, in order to get out of the way of the canoe.
It uses the pectoral fins, as the flying-fish do, but never makes
a clean flight. It is rather a succession of hops along the surface,
made by the aid of the side fins. It never becomes large.
Numbers of iguanos (mpulu) sit sunning themselves on overhanging
branches of the trees, and splash into the water as we approach.
They are highly esteemed as an article of food, the flesh being
tender and gelatinous.
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