Decembeb, 1901.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



207 



as to fonn a sort, of casque, aud the whole is usually 

 brilliantly coloured. The bird I had just secured had a 

 large heavy curved bill, but the casque was small and 

 sciU'celv noticeable, while in colour the bill wa,s black. 

 A smaller speciesf of hornbill. which was fairly common 

 in the districts also had a comparatively slender bill, but 

 coloiu'ed more brightly with red, black aud yellow. 



These curious birds were, unfortunately, not breeding 

 .at tlie time of oiu- visit, so that we were uuable to 

 obsei-ve the remarkable habits, shared, I believe, by all 

 the hombills, of imprisoning the female in the hole of 

 the ti-eo in which the eggs are laid. AVhen the female 

 begins to sit the male proceeds to plaster up the entrance 

 to the nest with a gummy secretion, and his mate is no 

 unwilling party to this arrangement, for she actually 

 helps him in the work. It is probable that while she 

 is sitting she loses all her wing feathers and is thus 

 incapable of flight. If such be the case her prison may 

 well become a fortress, where she is safe from the attacks 

 of monitors and other enemies. A crack is left open 

 ill the plaster door and through this the male feeds the 

 female and the young. Even more remarkable than the 

 imprisonment of the female is the fact discovered by the 

 late A. D. Bartlett, that at a certain period of the year 

 hornbills cast the lining of their gizzards. The lining 

 is formed by a secretion, aud takes the shape of a bag, 

 the mouth of which is closely folded. When cast up the 

 bag contains the fniit which the bird has been eating, 

 and it is supposed that this process enables the male to 

 pi'ovide his mate more easily with food. 



The pursuit of the honibill had led me far from the 

 camp, and the keenness of the chase had made me 

 oblivious to a dark heavy cloud on the horizon. I knew 

 well what the cloud meant. It drew rapidly nearer and 

 I walked quickly on, but was still some way from the 



Tlie Wreck of a Veot. Waiting; lor tlie Sandr'torn: lo cha 



tents when there was a sudden roar of wind, then fell 

 darkness, and the air, laden with sand, became blinding 

 and suffocating, blotting out the country like a thick mist. 

 To ti-y and proceed meant losing oneself in this fog of 

 sand. To face the wind was to court blindness, and 



t Lophoeeros erythrorhijncu.i (Temm.). 



there was nothing to be dono but to crouch down back 

 to tlio driving cutting sand and wait for the storm to 

 deal'. Gradually the air got clearer, and with the dai'k- 

 iiess gone, but with much sand still blowing, I made 

 niv wav to camp. The storm produced the usual un- 

 comfortable results : clothes and body seemed saturated 

 with grit; boxes and trunks, how ever tightly closed, 

 were tilled with sand, and meat and drink that night 

 were thickly seasoned with it. When a storm was accom- 

 panied by a heavy rush of wind the results were nioro 

 annoving. Clothes and papers were scattered, and once 

 my tent blew down with a run, burying my camera and 

 nivself in the niins. The only benefit bestowed by a 

 sand-storm was an occasional cool wind which followed, 

 but this was, unfortunately, rare, and scarcely compen- 

 satod for the two or three lioui-s of misery the stonn 

 entailed. 



As a rule an approaching dusl-storm appeared merely 

 ;is a thick murky cloud, but once from the top of Gebel 

 Auli wo witnessed a storm advancing upon us over the 

 desert like .a huge tidal wave. Towering some two or tlireo 

 Iniiidnxl feet in the air, and stretching away almost to tlio 

 horizon on either side, the gi-eat wave cui-ved like a 

 gigantic bow. Its centre was a shapeless mass of inky 

 bhickness, but where the bow curved and the brilliant 

 sun lighted up tlio wave in profile, its form wa.>9 a.s 

 compact, well defined, and rounded as any Atlantic 

 breaker, and its colour of a rich deep yellow. Rolling 

 over and over and advancing slowly but certainly it 

 seemed as though it might sweep everything from tlio 

 face of the earth. In front all was bright and peaceful, 

 behind all was dark and gloomy. Suddenly we heard 

 the roar of the wind, a few moments more and tho wavo 

 was on us, its outlino faded and we were engulfed in tho 

 thick darkness and driving sand. An hour or two after- 

 wards we emerged from the shelter of a rock 

 and made our way to camp, and all that iii^'lit 

 we slept in a wind that was delightfully cool 

 but heavily charged with sand. 



Sund-spouts, dust devils, or " cock-eyed- 

 bobs" were other forms of sand-storms which 

 caused us much amusement. A little whirl- 

 wind suddenly starts in the desert raising a 

 small column of dust. The column whirling 

 spirally upwards rapidly increases both in 

 height and circumference. Then it begins to 

 move ahuig aud at length tears madly acros.s 

 the plain as if alive, gathering pace and 

 vol lime as it goes aud whirling aloft every loose 

 thiiiir it encoimters. At all hours of the day 

 these sjiiral columns of sand race over the 

 desert, stoppiug here and there, then rushing 

 on a<iaiu. They vary as much in their size as 

 ill tlu-ir direction. Sometimes two will meet 

 each other, and if they be well matched the 

 collision stojis them, and a struggle ensues as 

 to which way they shall twist. Gradually one 

 gains the mast<?ry, and the twocomljined begin 

 to gyrate alik(; and then rush on together. A 

 dust devil com(;s on you unawares and sweeps 

 off your hat aud au Arab's clothes. I 

 have seen one twist a goat round like a toj', 

 and our camcl-incn were once attacked and their loose 

 clothes swept off, while wo, only fifty yards away, heard 

 the roar but felt not a breath of wind. 



The wildness, the freedom, and the limitless extent 

 of the desert all have their charms, the scent of it.s 

 heat«d breezes is fascinating, while its very barrenness 

 has an intense interest. Compare the vegetation of a 



