[A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone’s Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries by David Livingstone]@TWC D-Link bookA Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone’s Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries CHAPTER III 14/50
Some are standing in canoes, on the weed-covered ponds, spearing fish, while others are punting over the small intersecting streams, to examine their sunken fish-baskets. Towards evening, hundreds of pretty little hawks (_Erythropus vespertinus_) are seen flying in a southerly direction, and feeding on dragon-flies and locusts.
They come, apparently, from resting on the palm-trees during the heat of the day.
Flocks of scissor-bills (_Rhyncops_) are then also on the wing, and in search of food, ploughing the water with their lower mandibles, which are nearly half an inch longer than the upper ones. At the north-eastern end of the marsh, and about three miles from the river, commences a great forest of palm-trees (_Borassus AEthiopium_).
It extends many miles, and at one point comes close to the river.
The grey trunks and green tops of this immense mass of trees give a pleasing tone of colour to the view.
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