250 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



throughout his recent volume, and many of the excellent 

 "photogravures" are devoted to scenes of bird-life. On the 

 White Nile especially birds were most carefully studied and 

 photographed. The " teeming bird-life " is designated as the 

 " real charm of the voyage/' and described as follows : — 



"Owing to the heading back of the water of the White 

 Nile by the tremendous floods of the Blue Nile, there are, 

 during the season of low-water, wide stretches of bare mud 

 on the foreshore and low-lying banks. These muds con- 

 stitute the feeding-grounds of vast flocks of Waders and 

 aquatic birds. The river opposite Omdurman was haunted 

 by numbers of Gulls and Terns, unusual birds to find fifteen 

 hundred miles from the sea, but whether they migrate hither 

 or are bred in the marshes I do not know. By the time 

 we tied up for the night we had only made ten miles, but in 

 that short space we had seen huge flocks of Storks, Geese, 

 grey Demoiselle Cranes, coal-black and snow-white Ibises, 

 Spoonbills, Black-headed Gulls, Pelicans, Wood-Ibises, 

 Avocets, Spur-winged Geese, Teal, and Ruddy Sheldrakes. 

 The long lines of the last-named sitting at the edge of the 

 water made a brilliant piece of colour in the setting sun. 

 Some of the Storks and Ibises have the habit of spreading 

 their wings to the sun : and when a row of them maintains 

 this rigid attitude, they have the appearance of ladies holding 

 up their skirts with both hands. Towards evening many of 

 these birds shifted their ground and passed us on the wing 

 with a great clatter. The next morning we added to the list 

 of birds observed the Sacred Ibis, which has a white body 

 with black head and neck. It was no doubt the striking 

 appearance of this bird which attracted the ancient Egyptians, 

 who domesticated it and mummied it after death. I think 

 that it is now extinct or a rare visitor in Lower Egypt. 

 An old friend, the Golden-crested Crane, was present, but in 

 small numbers. I got out my long-range camera, from which 

 I hoped great things, but a steady foundation is essential to 

 that instrument, and I soon found that the vibration of the 

 engine made a well-defined picture impossible. The pictures 

 here given were really taken at a later stage/' 



