244 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[November, 1901. 



which is undoubtedly assumed for pui-poses of conceal- 

 ment. I have seen the bird in the same attitude 

 amongst green reeds in Spain, but there, as in the 

 acacias in the Soudan, the bird benefited nothing by 

 this strange posture. The little bittern is a cream- 

 coloured bird with a velvety black back and head, and 

 I think it could never be taken for a stick or reed 

 except perhaps in broken light. With the brown- 

 coloured common bittern, whicli adopts the same pose, 

 the case would be difFcrent. One might suppose, how- 

 ever, that the little bittern itself considered the attitude 

 a complete protection by adopting it on the approach 

 of danger, and by remaining motionless through such 

 a terrifying ordeal as the sound of the twenty shots I 

 have mentioned. Had the bird frequented the thicker 

 trees, its stick-like attitude might have saved it from 

 detection, but in the open trees in which we generally 

 found it the trick was a ludicrous failure. 



There were other birds in this country which either 

 by their protective colouring or by their attitudes were 

 rendered inconspicuous and often invisible. Those which 

 relied upon their colour for concealment were, as would 

 be expected, birds of the open countrj', and their colour- 

 ing was. of course, like the sand. Of those I have 

 mentioned — various species of lai-ks w-ere difficult to see 

 even when they were flying, the fantail warbler was 

 exactly the colour of sand or dead grass ; the sandgi'ouse 

 was impossible to distinguish at a short distance in the 

 desert, as were the cream-coloured coursers on the sand 

 by the river. The birds living amongst the trees de- 

 pended upon the thickness of the branches and twigs 

 for concealment, and although there were few trees with 

 leaves, it was extraordinaiy how perfect a protection 

 they were afforded. Even the most brightly coloured 

 birds were hidden in a thick mimosa bush or 

 acacia tree, and most of the shy birds seemed to recognise 

 this fact, and rather than fly away would retire into 

 the thickest j^ai-t of a tree. Mouse birds or colies,*| for 

 instance, flew into_a tree and disappeared as if by magic. 

 They have a sweet piping note, and often on hearing 

 this sound I used to croei> under the tree from which 

 it came and watch these long-tailed parakcet^like birds 

 creeping and climbing as mice in and out amongst the 

 tjiickly-growing twigs and branches in the centre of the 

 tree. On catching sight of mc looking up at them they 

 would give a humed, rather gasping, pipe, and climb 

 with wonderfid dexterity and swiftness towards the out- 

 side of the tree furthest away from danger. When all 

 had an-ived on the edge they would fly away, softlv 

 piping. 



Birds of the night are perhaps the cleverest at hiding 

 themselves. Once when strolling round a mid-day camp 

 to escape the gi-oaning of the camels as they were bein? 

 loaded, I saw what appeared to be a broken piece of 

 bough in a very thick tree. I was struck by its rather 

 bird-like shape, but should have passed it had I not 

 the habit of looking with my binoculars at puzzling 

 sights. The binoculars made the stump look still more 

 bird-hke, and after walking all round the tree I at last 

 made out two horns, which I knew must come from the 

 head of an owl. I ran to the camp for a gun and fetched 

 my companions, who assui-ed me the thing was only a 

 stump. I fired at it and down fell" two owls, while a 

 tliird flew away. So that the " stump " was in fact 

 three birds huddled up together. They were beautiful 

 little horned owls of a rare species.** 



The only other owls we found were a large handsome 



eagle owl, ft and a white or barn owl.JJ: The latter 

 was rather more spotted on the breast than our familiar 

 English bird, and for this reason Brehm, who collected 

 birds in the Khartoum district many years ago, gave the 

 bam owl of these parts the sub-specific name of 

 iiiaciilatd. It is remarkable that although the bam owls 

 are spread over most of the world, they preserve so 

 constant a type that, unlike the generalit}' of birds in 

 similar case, they cannot be separated into different 

 species, although their slight variations enable the 

 diligent systematist to divide them into races or Sub- 

 species. The fact that the barn owl seldom migrates, 

 and is a more or less sedentan' bird, makes its want of 

 variation all the more remarkable. The only bird of 

 this species that we found inhabited the rocky hill, 

 Gebel Auli, which I have already mentioned as the 

 haunt of bats and hedgehogs. The owl seemed to have 

 no mate and lived in a small cavem in the rock. This 

 had perhaps been used as a nesting place, and it was 

 littered with _ castings of the rejected fur and bones of 

 the bird's prey. 



It was after climbing about this hill and searching 

 its crevices from top to bottom that Mahomet, my 

 stately guiibearer, said he felt very ill and must have 

 a doctor. We considered that he was malingering, but 

 when he told us that he was always accustomed to be 

 bled once a month and had not now had any blood 

 drawn for two whole months, we bowed to his decision 

 and waited eagerly for the doctor. The real doctor of 

 the village of some twenty huts at Gebel Auli was away 



•" Colitis macrvrus (Linn.). *» Seops leumfh (Tpmm.). 



Fio. 1. — Bleeding iliilininpf. The doctor adjusting tlie " cup." 



on a journey, but liis hinim fenen.t, who was a decidedly 

 inferior practitioner we were told, put in an appearance. 

 After a long harang-uc Mahomet decided to be operated 

 on by him. The doctor came unprovided with a lancet, 

 but he soon borrowed a razor from Salim, one of the 

 camel men. His only other instrument was a piece of 

 a cow's horn with the narrow end closed bv a bit of 

 tin. 'Mahomet resignedly lay down in the shade, and 

 the operation, the various stages of which we somewhat 

 callously photographed, commenced. The patient's head 

 was shaved and then the cow's horn was placed on 

 the side of the neck. The doctor applied his lips to 

 this primitive " cup " and sucked vigorously until a 

 vacuum was formed, when he closed the opening with 

 the piece of tin. In a few minutes the horn was taken 

 off and revealed a lai-ge bump raised on the neck. A 



+t Siihn Incleux (Tennn.). 



Xt S/rix ilammea (Linn.). 



