208 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



and sixteen miles. The following is the order of inter- 

 mediate points at which I collected specimens : — Meshra, 

 Amien, Madal, Mayik, Menyah, Gameiza, Gardein, Bir-el- 

 Girud, Dug Dug, Doleiba, Ayum, Moyen, Makwak, Wau. 



Wau, a prettily-situated station on the Jur River, is the 

 neadquarters of government in the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province. 

 The intermediate places are either Dinka or Jur villages of 

 no great size, or merely halting-places where huts have been 

 huilt and wells dug, near selected shade-trees when possible. 

 From Meshra to Ayiim the natives are Dinkas, and after 

 that Jurs. 



From Meshra to Ayum the country is flat, open, grass- 

 covered, and alluvial,with some thorn-bush and scattered trees 

 and " Doleib " palms at intervals. On the whole, it is mostly 

 very open plain. Just beyond Ayum, and some thirty-five 

 miles before reaching Wau, the country suddenly changes to 

 an ironstone formation, covered with fairly high open forest. 

 Excepting for small plains bordering rivers, and the channels 

 of '^khors," this ironstone forest-country continues the whole 

 way to Chak Chak, and south-west to Dem Zubeir. The 

 change in the country and vegetation at Ayum is naturally 

 associated with a change in the animal- and bird-life, and many 

 truly forest species are first met with at this point. Among 

 large mammals, for instance, Heuglin's Hartebeest [Bubalis 

 lelwel) at once takes the place of Damaliscus tiang on the 

 alluvial. Among birds the red-legged Francolinus gedgii 

 Grant at once gives place to the yellow-legged F. ictero- 

 rliynchus Heugl. and the Stone-fowl, PtilopacMs fuscus 

 (Vieill.), while changes among the smaller species are 

 equally noticeable. 



From Wau to Chak Chak "^ (a small station on the Chell 

 River) the direction is north-west, and the distance about the 

 same as from Meshra to Wau — perhaps a hundred and twenty 

 miles. Intermediate points mentioned in this paper are, 

 from Wau : Buval, Khor Gitti, Bringi^s, Kuanga's, Sheik 

 Zaid, Bedari's Village (where the Pongo or Bongo River is 



* Chak Clialv, 8° 41' 0" N. lat., 26° 51' 50" E. long. 



