86 Bird Hunting on the White Nile. 



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-like, 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 assured me the thing was only a 

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

 third 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 

 barn owl of these parts the sub-specific name of 

 maculata. It is remarkable that although the barn owls 

 are spread over most of the world, they preserve so 

 constant a type that, unlike the generality 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- 



** Scops leucotis (Temm.). ff Subo lacteus (Temm.). 



JJ Strix ftammea (Linn.). 



