72 Bird Hunting on the White Nile. 



red-throated pipit** feeding on the banks of the river 

 some 1400 miles south of Cairo. Less than a year 

 before I had seen this bird in its breeding haunts 

 beyond the arctic circle in Russian Lapland, and I knew 

 that it only nested north of the tree-limit. When I 

 recalled my own journeys by boat and rail round the 

 North Cape and then again down to Khartoum, and 

 looked at the lonely, delicate little bird before me, it 

 was almost impossible to realise that those feeble wings 

 would in a few weeks' time be transporting that tender 

 little body beyond the arctic circle. 



I have said that we rested in the heat of the day, but 

 a variety of causes generally kept us busy. There were 

 birds to skin and label and pack, and notes to be 

 written, then a gun was always kept handy, even at meal 

 times, for the unknown birds which would often come 

 unwarily into the tree over our tents and proclaim 

 themselves by their notes. There were sheikhs to be 

 salaamed and interviewed, and then our own followers 

 required much attention. They stole from the natives, 

 who naturally complained, they neglected the animals 

 and the few duties we were able to put upon them, they 

 were continually drunk with " merissa," and were always 



** A nthus cerviniift [Val].). 



