Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/324

 256 SOUTH AND EAST AFBICA. Kafukwe basin, there exists an extremely curious species of antelope, whose broad feet are better adapted for swimming than for bounding over the plains. These quishobos, as they are called by the people of Bih^, pass nearly aU their life in the water, in which they are often seen to dive, leaving nothing above the surface except their two twisted horns. At night they leave the river to browse on the surrounding grassy plains. Their absence from the lower reaches of the river may perhaps be attributed to the crocodiles, which are here very numerous and exceptionally voracious. The tiakong, another almost amphibious species of ante- lope, inhabits the muddy swamps which receive the discharge of the Chobe River. The enormous size of his foot, which is no less than twelve inches to the extremity of the hoof, enables the nakong to pass easily over the trembling quagmires with- out sinking. Like the quishobo, he also grazes at night, concealing himself during the day amid the tall reeds. When pursued he plunges into the stream, leaving nothing exposed except his back-curved horns and the tip of his nozzle. The natives set fire to the reeds in order to compel the nakong to leave his marshy lair ; they report that he will allow his horns to be consumed before quitting the water and resuming his flight. Except in the Upper Zambese, where animal life is comparatively rare, the main stream as well as the riverain lagoons teem with several kinds of fishes. One of these, the Mosheba, which inhabits the waters of the Middle Zambese, has the power of flight, like the oceanic flying-fish. After the passage of boats it darts into the track, and rising above the surface by the strength of its pectoral fins, follows in the wake for a distance of several j'ards. The fish-eagle {cuncuma vocifer) destroys an enormous quantity of fish, far more than he can possibly con- simie. Usually, he selects only the dainty morsels on the back of the animal, and often does not even take the trouble of capturing the prey himself. When he spies a pelican with its pouch dilated with store for future consumption, he drops like a plimimet, all the time beating his wings. This so scares the pelican that it raises its head and opens wide its great mandibles, from which the eagle, passing like a flash, snatches the captured prey. All the marshy tracts are frequented by flocks of aquatic birds as numerous as the penguins and seagulls on certain oceanic islands. The parra africana, one of these fish-eaters, is provided with such broad feet that he is able to advance into mid-stream on the outspread lotus leaves without bending them, walking, as it were, on the surface of the water as on solid ground. The Zambese waters are also infested by crocodiles, which are here extremely dangerous, thus differing from their congeners in so many other rivers, where they never willingly attack man. Every year reports are constantly heard in the riverain villages of women and children snapped off on the banks of the streams, of travellers and boatmen killed or mutilated by these voracious reptiles, which in the lower reaches of the Zambese are said annually to devour about two hundred and fifty natives. Amongst all the riverain populations any person wounded by the crocodile is regarded as impure, and expelled from the tribe to avert the calamity his presence would be sure to cause.