^°^l^^^] Phillips, Birds of the Sudan. 157 



inability to shoot one, for they flew very high and we never could 

 find their roosts. One day Dr. Allen was riding along the road, 

 mounted as usual on a small, gray donkey, his gun across the 

 saddle-bow. A flock came flying over, the collector raised his gun, 

 fired, replaced his gun, caught the bird in his lap, wrapped it up and 

 dropped it into his bag, without the donkey ever changing his pace 

 or wagging an ear. I call this a good performance, but as a game- 

 shooting companion often remarks, "They do come easy, some- 

 times." 



I want to say a word about the indicators, or honey guides, 

 which have caused so much comment from all African travellers. 

 We found two kinds. The natives call them "Manoch" and treat 

 them to a great deal of ceremony and a little set speech, the meaning 

 of which we did not get. Most ornithologists concur, I think, in 

 the belief that the honey guides do not guide, but merely attract 

 one to honey by their presence in its neighborhood. There was 

 one bird, however, at Mangangani, which persistently followed me 

 about, and chattered in an amazing manner. I thought I never 

 would shake him off, and I am almost convinced that he was follow- 

 ing me and talking to me, too. 



We got ten species of hawks, eight of thrushes, eleven of old 

 world warblers, seven of shrikes and bush shrikes, and eleven of 

 ploceids or weavers. Several of the ploceids are kinds seen com- 

 monly in cages. The long tailed Paradise Whydah, with rectrices 

 that certainly impede its progress, and the beautiful little Cordon- 

 blue of aviculturalists. This little gem of bright cobalt blue, so 

 delicate and short-lived in captivity, was everywhere common, 

 and associated in little flocks with the Small Red Weaver, Lagono- 

 stida senegala. These little mixed flocks were most confiding, and 

 we saw them everjy'where. 



The ostrich, which is rare, we did not get a sight of. It, with 

 various species of cranes, storks, herons and the Giant Hornbill, 

 is protected by law. 



Most of the resident Blue-Nile birds belong to Abyssinian types, 

 and are therefore different from the White-Nile forms only a short 

 distance away. The mammals also tend towards Abyssinian, 

 rather than central African forms. 



Early workers in the eastern Sudan and Abyssinia were Riippell 



