Having plenty of game, we carried the leopard-meat a long way off, and threw it away.
We did not go hunting for two days, but spent our time in smoking the meat we had on hand. It was just the sort of weather for hunting, and for living in the woods. The air was cool and refreshing, for it was June, and the dry season; but the sky was often clouded, which prevented the sun from being oppressive. To add to our pleasure, the forest trees were in bloom, and many of them were fragrant. The nights were very cold indeed for this country, the thermometer going down to sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. The wind blew hard, but against that we managed to protect ourselves. The dews were not nearly so heavy as they are in the rainy season. The grass was in great part burned off the prairies.
Every day we succeeded in shooting more or less game, among which were antelopes, gazelles, wild boars, monkeys without number, and guinea fowls. These guinea fowls were of a beautiful species. In this country you have never seen any like them.
My joy was great when I killed this hitherto unknown species of guinea-fowl (Numida plumifera). It is one of the handsomest of all the guinea-fowls yet discovered. Its head is naked, the skin being of a deep bluish-black tinge, and is crowned with a beautiful crest of straight, erect, narrow, downy feathers, standing in a bunch close together. The plumage of the body is of a fine bluish-black ground, variegated with numerous eyes of white, slightly tinged with blue. The bill and legs are coloured a blue-black, similar to the skin of the head.
This bird is not found near the seashore. It is very shy, but marches in large flocks through the woods. At night they perch on trees, where they are protected from the numerous animals which prowl about.
I killed several beautiful monkeys called by the natives mondi. What curious-looking monkeys they were! Only the stuffed specimen of a young one had been received in England before this time. The mondi is entirely black, and is covered with long shaggy hair. It has a very large body, and a funny little head, quite out of proportion to the size of the animal. It is a very beautiful monkey; the hair is of a glossy jet black; and it has a very long tail. In Africa no monkeys have prehensile tails; I mean by that, tails which they can twist round the branch of a tree, and so hang themselves with the head downwards. That kind of monkey is only found in South America.
The mondi has a dismal cry, which sounds very strangely in the silent woods, and always enabled me to tell where these monkeys were.
ABOKO KILLS A ROGUE ELEPHANT.
[CHAP. XVIII.]