The known fresh-water Fish are insignificant in quality and quantity, and only serve to feed the numerous crocodiles which infest the main stream of the Háwash. Its various tributaries, when they first escape from the mountains, carry small species of Salmo and Perca (Asa), which are in great request during Lent; but the manner of taking them is primitive and imperfect.
All the Amphibia are objects of apprehension and superstition. Serpents (Ebab) are not numerous, and are chiefly of small kinds, nor venomous, but the awe in which they are held is quite ridiculous. Tribes in the far west, described as being the meanest of men, and scarcely above the beasts, are charged by the Abyssinians with the heinous custom of eating snakes, and ornamenting their persons with necklaces of the backbone of that accursed animal. Two kinds of tortoises (Yeli) are found in the low country, Testudo Graeca and Indica; the latter attains an enormous size in the deep impenetrable jungles of Mentshar. The dread entertained of the Saurii comprises all kinds, the harmless and the formidable. The Egyptian Gecko (Enkakela), the chameleon (Eist), the Seineus officinalis, and other numerous lizards, which make themselves most useful by the removal of so many annoying insects, are unrelentingly doomed to destruction, whilst the crocodiles (Azo) roam unmolested on the abandoned shores of the larger rivers and lakes.
The Feathered Tribe exist in great variety of species, which may in some degree be due to the preponderance of migratory birds. The Scansores, however, are principally stationary, their food seldom failing throughout the year. The noblest of them is a parrot-like Coliphimus (Sorit) of the Shoan forests. Lovely shades of green, and many tints of the brightest red, a stately crest, and a long rounded tail, make it a favourite with the Abyssinians. A tail-feather fastened in the hair of a daring warrior, is a token of late achievements in the battle-field. Two other kinds, called Wans Sorit, i.e. Sorit of the river-side, and Aheia, i.e. donkey, from its asinine tunes, are much inferior in beauty, though not in size. One, Coliphimus concolor, is of a dull greyish green; the other, C. fasciatus, black and white, with white zones, across the tail; the beak of the female is green; both live in Efát upon different grains and wild figs. Two small kinds of parrot inhabit the fig and tamarind trees of the lower country: their name, Donkoro, is also used figuratively of persons talking nonsense. One corresponds almost with Psittacus Taranta. In the other, which is a little larger, the sexes are distinguished by the gay plumage of the male, which is green above and red below, whilst the female is greyish brown and yellow. Centropus Jardini, a beautiful kind of cuckoo, lives solitary on the fig-trees in Efát: several species of woodpeckers, which do not seem to differ from the South African kinds, are found on acacias and tamarinds.
Among the Ambulatores many migrate during winter-time from the mountains to the eastern plain; others arrive during summer from the North, most likely from Sennaar and Egypt. They rarely do any considerable damage on the plantations of Teff and Juwarree, whilst their services in destroying numberless vermin are most conspicuous. Bird-catching for food or for amusement is not a sport with the Amhára, but, on the other hand, there is no privilege in favour of the songsters—a study and imitation of the tunes of which might greatly improve the execrable attempts of music, vocal and instrumental, vented by the unskilful Abyssinian performer.
Two gaudy kinds of Alcedo play on the rivulets—Merops Bulockii and Nubicus. These truly African species of the flycatcher are in the lower, Upupa epops, the common hoopoe, in the upper country. Certhia tacazze and chalybea, with two other equally beautiful kinds of the humming-bird, proceed with the seasons to their flower-gardens, when the return of rain here, and of warmth there, elicits the most fragrant blossoms, and covers the shrubs of the mountain-side, or the jungle-trees, with soft honey-insects. One of these humming-birds suspends its baglike nest, ingeniously woven of raw cotton, by a string of the same material, to reeds, or cotton-plants. Buphaga Africana picks the larvae of gad-flies out of the galled backs of camels, oxen, and mules, in spite of the struggles of the tortured animal. Jeterus larvatus, and other species of stares, weave their nests of grass, and line them inside with the woolly flowers of an Achyranthes. These nests are suspended in great numbers to the lower branches of solitary trees, and may have given origin to the story of the wonderful groves, where all the fruits are birds enclosed in a shell. Lamprotomis auratus, and some other kinds of thrushes, consume, during their short stay in Shoa of two months, immense numbers of insects. Among the Sylviadae are some eminent songsters, especially Sylvia Pammelaina, and also species of Motacilla, and Saxicola, whilst one Muscipeta, the male of which has two tail-feathers three times as long as the whole body, is quite silent. The head and neck of this remarkable bird are steel-blue, the other parts of the plumage rusty-brown, except the two elongated middle feathers of the tail, which are snowy white, with black quills, and a brown plot at the extremity: they are used as an ornament for royalty. Lanius humeralis (Gurameile) is one of those fatal birds, the sudden appearance of which before an army at its outset, forebodes ill-success, and all manner of misfortune to single persons, if the tail be directed towards them. To the other kinds of shrikes no such unhappy celebrity is attached, although they seem not less litigious, and anxious to draw off by their noise the attention of a wayfarer from the vicinity of their nests. Alauda alpestris comes from the West, and returns again after two months, April and May. The most numerous kinds of finches, Ploccus, Pyrgita, Linaria, etc., are all comprised under the appellation Off, i.e. small bird: they seem generally to have fixed quarters. Colius Capensis (Rasa) is solely in Efát, in company with the Wans sorit.
Ravens and crows are of three kinds, but one of them (Kura) is particularly remarkable on account of its beak, which is much higher than the crown, carrying a considerable protuberance on the top, the nostrils being situated in an excavation, which runs forward in a broad furrow; the bill is very massive, twice as high as it is broad, and terminating in a small hook; the colour of the plumage is deep brownish black, except a broad bar of white feathers across the sinciput, and sometimes a narrow white line down the back of the neck. Its voice and mode of living and walking is just like that of our crows, but it does not suffer the approach of other species.
Swallows are never failing, but the species vary in their visits. Hirundo Capensis and rustica appear to avoid each other, not being seen together in the same localities. Cypselus apus and Caprimulgus species are rarely met with. Coracias afra and Abyssinica live only in the lower country, also the various kinds of Hornbill. Erkoom, Buceros Abyssinicus, by far the largest, is mischievous to the Juwarree fields; but the damage done is compensated by his great liking for field-mice also. The Erkoom runs swiftly, and rises seldom into the air: the white wing-feathers are much esteemed as an ornament of the hair by the triumphant warrior. Buceros nasutus, and another species, which differs slightly in colour and size, eat small lizards and chameleons. Buceros erythrorhynchus (Sholak), the most frequent of them, rids the plantations of many noxious insects.
The tribe of Raptores (Amora) is uncommonly numerous, and on the whole very useful in Abyssinia. Those that feed on living animals seldom stoop even at a stray fowl, whilst all their other prey is quite indifferent to the farmer, and the carrion-birds remove quickly whatever the indolent grazier has dragged outside his door. Finding plenty of food, they have no need to wander widely or periodically; yet the large species have their nests at considerable distances from their hunting districts, and commonly on inaccessible precipices.
Strix bubo, the only but very common owl of the up-country, and one Otus of the low plain, are treated as birds of ill-omen. From the entrails of the former the necromancer prepares a potent charm. The eagle, Aquila naevia (Nas’r), comes seldom near the villages, nor is he forward in his depredations. Falco biarmicus fights his superiors in size, and deprives them forcibly of their prey; it has got hence the appellation, Ya Amora Alaka, i.e. chief of the birds of prey. Morphnus occipitalis (Adagoota), a beautiful crested falcon, lives in the lower country of Giddem, and is particularly inert. Several species of Astur and Accipiter (Bazi) feed on small songsters and mice. Ternis, spec. (Goodie), removes innumerable quantities of locusts; and Milvus parasiticus (Tshelvit) cleans streets and premises in company with the crows. Gypaëtos barbatus (Cheffie), extremely frequent in Shoa, draws near to butchers, and waits patiently for his share—the paunch and other rejected parts of the victim. Vultur arrianus and fulvus (Vellos) smell their food many miles off, and gather round it in great numbers. The periodically returning wars, and the extensive stock of cattle kept throughout the habitable parts, feed, with never-failing supplies of carrion, horrible gangs of hyenas, jackals, dogs, and vultures. Cathartes perenopterus and Neophron Niger are less frequent, and always solitary.
The tribe of Rasores contains the few birds that are considered fit for Christian food; yet the common fowl (Doroo), the only domesticated kind, kept almost in every compound, is very much neglected, and not being of a superior breed, remains small and lean. All other meat is eaten raw by the Abyssinians, but fowls, either tame or wild, must be cooked. The wild ones, pintado, partridge, quail, and grouse, are not prohibited, but still suspected as unwholesome food; and if even long after an indulgence of such meat the gourmand falls sick, he invariably looks back upon that trespass as the cause of his indisposition. Numida cristata (Chickra), in bevies of many hundreds, range throughout the lower country. A very large kind of partridge (Kok) is found, not in coveys, but in pairs, running swiftly through furrows of the corn-fields. Dogs are taught to catch them without injury; and before being eaten, the bird is kept for some days, to obviate the bad effects of any unclean food which it may possibly have taken. This partridge attains the size of the pintado. Another kind, living on the high plateau, and also hunted down with dogs, resembles more that of middle Europe. Pterocles arenarius, and other species of grouse, occur in the deserts.