70 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



pit in a sloping bank and to shoot downwards. 

 An electric lamp formed part of my outfit, other- 

 wise I should presumably have tried to fix the 

 bait against the sky-line. The pit was always 

 partially screened by bushes or driftwood, and I was 

 most careful that the slope down to the bait should 

 afford no shelter whatever. 



The construction of a satisfactory machan has 

 always appeared to me to be a conclusive test of the 

 skill of the hunter. The two leading principles to 

 bear in mind are that there must be total concealment, 

 but no interference with the natural aspect of the 

 locality. I am convinced that leopards, in particular, 

 which have a more restricted beat than tigers or 

 lions, know every stick and stone in the forests where 

 they have spent their lives, and that a single twisted 

 branch will be the subject of scrutiny and speculation. 

 Extreme care should be exercised in the selection of 

 the tree in which the machan is to be constructed, 

 and I always think that when a satisfactory tree has 

 been found, more than half the battle is over. Such 

 trees are not too common in the Sudan, but it is a 

 mistake to suppose that they do not exist. From a 

 single tree at Wad Heleu I shot on different occasions 

 two lionesses and two hyaenas, and from another at 

 Hawata I shot two lionesses and one serval, wounded 

 a lion, and saw a third lioness. By far the best tree 

 in the Sudan for a machan is, in my opinion, a 



