SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I928 



65 



About two days' journey from Khartoum we saw our first hippo, 

 and from that time on we saw hundreds, including many Httle fellows 

 on the backs of their mothers. Crocodiles in great numbers, sunning 

 themselves on the banks, could also be seen. From Bor to Rejaf we 

 saw more than a hundred elephants. A big bull elephant w^hose tusks 

 weighed 99 pounds was shot by one of the hunters near Bor. The 

 Nile River is practically alive with fish of many varieties, the prize 

 among which is the Xile perch, said to grow to a weight of 200 

 pounds. The perch are caught with live bait or by spooning, and 



«#. 



Fk;. 55. — Roan antelope at Gemeiza. 



furnish excellent food. Two of the strangest fish are the electric 

 catfish and the lung fish. 



The plant life of the Sudan is meager; except at Khartoum, where 

 irrigation is practiced, few plants and flowers are found. Bird life, 

 however, is most abundant along the Nile, possibly more abundant than 

 in any other locality. I think it is no exaggeration to say that I saw 

 millions of birds, among them weaver finches, bee-eaters, marabou and 

 jabiru storks, kingfishers, various ibises, river eagles, white-faced 

 tree-ducks, herons of many kinds, stone-curlews, horn-bills, shoe-bill 

 and open-billed storks, egrets, various kinds of cranes and geese, and 



