122 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[October, 1901. 



similar that no one but an expert would detect the 

 difference. 



It was most interesting to come across birds with 

 which one was familiar in England in their winter 

 resorts or on their migrations so far to the south. The 

 extraordinary power of the migrating impulse was 



Fio. 1. — Camp at Duem. 



brought vividly home to mo by the presence of a solitary 

 red-throated pipif-^* feeding on the banks of the river 

 some 1400 miles south of Cairo. Less than a yeai- 

 before I had seen this bird in its breeding haunts 

 beyond the arctic circle in Russian Lapland, and I knew 

 that it only nested north of the tree^■limit. When I 

 recalled my own journeys by boat and rail round the 

 North Cape and then again down to Khartoum, and 

 looked at the lonely, delicate little bird before me. it 

 was almost impossible to realise that tho.se feeble wings 

 would in a few weeks' time be transporting that tender 

 little body beyond the arctic circle. 



I have said that we rested in the heat of the day, but 

 a variety of causes generally kept us busy. There were 

 birds to skin and label and pack, and notes to be 

 written, then a gun was always kept handy, even at meal 

 times, for the unknown birds which would often come 

 unwarily into the tree over our tents and proclaim 

 themselves by their notes. There were sheikhs to be 

 salaamed and interviewed, and then our own followers 

 required much attention. They stole from the natives, 

 who natui-ally complained, they neglected the animals 

 and the few duties we were able to put upon them, they 

 were continually drunk with " boozer," and were always 

 quan-elling and threatening one another's lives. All 

 these little affairs had to bo enquired into and dealt with 

 during the mid-day "rest." Correction had to be ad- 

 ministered usually in the form of the " korbag," laid 

 on with no sparing hand by a companion of the delin- 

 quent. But they were accustomed to this, and a more 

 effective form of punishment, resei-ved for special 

 occasions, was to administer a kick with precision and 

 l^ower as though one were " placing " a goal at Rugby 

 football. This not only hurt and surprised, but had the 

 additional advantages of wounding the dignity of the 

 kicked, and of bearing gratifying results to the kicker. 

 Catering for ourselves and our followers also had to be 

 attended to, and this sort of conversation would often 

 ensue: — "Hassan, why have we no eggs in this camp 

 when there is a village quite close? " " Ah, effendi, dey 



*• Anihus cervinus (Pall.). 



no buy (sell) eggs in dis village, all dee people want to 

 make dee chickens." 



To sleep during the mid-day rest was somewhat 

 difficult. The temperature in the shade rangetl from 

 100° to 115° Fahrenheit during the hot hours. There 

 were also innumerable insects of various sorts in every 

 camp. Ants of several kinds ran over us and bit us in 

 the day time as well as at night. There were mosquitoes, 

 find flies and small biting beetles in most places, while 

 huge hairy spiders and enormous hairless ones of 

 foi'ocious attitude and powerful jaws often ran about 

 inside our tents, but luckily these never preyed upon 

 us. In one camp we were assailed by a. whole army of 

 little bees, which were extremely diligent in building 

 small cocoon-shaped nests of mud in om- bedding, boxes 

 and clothes. At night the nests were tenanted by their 

 builders, which resented a disturbance of their hardly- 

 earned rest, and used their stings so freely that w-e were 

 obliged to search carefully for the nests and burn out 

 the defenders. Large black hornets were numerous, but 

 inoffensive if not molested. 



We yeanied to catch "and train one of the brilliant 

 plumaged bee-eaters, of which there were four kinds in 

 the country, to attend upon us and protect us from 

 these noxious insects. A bee-eater fears no insect.. I 

 saw one of a small varietyft sitting on a twig suddenly 

 dart into the air and catch a great hornet in the tip of 

 its long bill. Retumiug to its perch with this delicate 

 morsel, the beefeater crushed it thoroughly by passing 

 it to and fro through its beak and then suddenly 

 swallowed it whole. In our camps furthest to the south 

 white ants were a scoiu-ge and their ravages had to be 

 carefully guarded against. All the baggage had to be 

 moved and examined two or three times a day, and so 

 quickly do these pests get to work that during a single 

 night any article left lying on the ground will be com- 

 pletely covered with the sandy secretion, under which 

 the ants operate, and will be" half destroyed. Where 

 these ants were numerous the trees were entirely brown 

 with their workings, and the fallen trunks and boughs 

 were not only brown with the protective covering but 





Fig. 2.— Camp at Gerazi. 

 eaten through, so that at every stej) on an aj)parent 

 mound of earth one crushed through the shell of a 

 fallen ti"ce. 



The most amusing visitors to our camp were the 

 monkeys, which were numerous between Duem and 

 Kawa. They were very tame and used to come regularly 

 into the tree over the tents, and after a tremendous 

 romp, would ne stle up to each other and sleep for hours. 

 +t Meroj>s pusilhs, P. L. S. Mull. 



