° 1914 J Phillips, Birds of the Sudan. 153 



zoological gardens in Cairo. The short tailed Meyer's Parrot with 

 orange spots on the bend of the wings, is a small and very lively 

 bird, exceedingly hard to collect, and only common in the southern 

 part of our region. 



It is hopeless to try to give any idea of the large number of species 

 which we encountered in the two months, January and February, 

 and a poor time of the year it was at best. In the way of game 

 birds the Helmeted Guinea-fowl stands first, though in gameness 

 he certainly stands at the foot of the list. This bird is seen all over 

 the eastern Sudan, often in incredible numbers, and I can truth- 

 fully state that I encountered one flock containing a thousand head, 

 a great bluish mass of moving fowl which ran ahead of me, occasion- 

 ally rising by the hundred and alighting again. Flocks of a hun- 

 dred or more were too common to be remarked upon. This species 

 seems to live by sheer force of numbers, its stupidity is notorious, 

 and it is preyed upon by all the small and very numerous carni- 

 vores, by the abundant hawks and by long lines of string nooses 

 set by the Arabs. An English resident told me he had never seen 

 its nest and A. L. Butler makes the same statement in 'The Ibis.' 

 He thinks it must nest only in the rainy season, when travel is very 

 difficult and the whole country is a sea of mud. In January, there 

 were still some very young looking birds mixed in with these big 

 flocks. 



The francolin of the country is Francolinus clappertoni, a rather 

 large and handsomely marked partridge which occurs mostly along 

 the strips of heavy elephant grass near the river. In the morning 

 it gets out onto the open edges of the grass and rises briskly and 

 rather quietly, like a pheasant. It might make quite a good game 

 bird, but its flesh, though white and fine looking, is rather a disap- 

 pointment, for like that of the guinea fowl it is tough and dry. 

 Perhaps if the birds could be hung in a cool place the result 

 would be different. 



The river birds of the Blue-Nile and its tributary the Dinder are 

 not numerous, for there is very little food on the sandy, shifting 

 shores. That patriarch of all birds, the Whale-headed Stork, or 

 Shoe-bill is only found on the White Nile, and the great Goliath 

 Heron we did not see at all, though it does occur in the eastern 

 Sudan, more commonly perhaps in the summer season of flood. 



