20 Bird Hunting on the White Nile. 



and monotonous, as far as the eye can reach, stretches 

 out on every side. Here and there a stunted mimosa 

 bush or a black rock rising conspicuously from the sand 

 serves but to accentuate the loneliness and barrenness of 

 the scene, while the mirage on every side tantalizes 

 the eye with its shining dazzling mockery. At intervals 

 along the single narrow track are " stations," so called, 

 but otherwise they are nameless being only numbered 

 one to nine. Each of these boasts of one or two tents, 

 and some tanks of water. At some are stores of coal, 

 and at two there are pumps, which bring up from deep 

 below the sand that priceless water which, with 

 " Kitchener's luck," was happed upon during the con- 

 struction of the railway, when water w^as so valuable for 

 men and engines that a whole month was gained by 

 finding it. At several stations we saw ravens, J and 

 at one, some kites. § What induces these birds to live 

 in such forsaken spots, and upon what they feed, unless 

 it is on just the scraps they can pick up round the 

 tents, and how they get water to drink, are puzzles 

 difficult to solve. 



At Abu Hamed, with its small white-washed station 

 house, the river was reached again, and here a few scraggy 



X Corru-s umlrinus, Sunder. § Milvus aegyptius, Gin. 



