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SAVAGE SUDAN 



average 3 feet in height, while sparse thorns rise to 

 double that. Each of these loftier thorns is occupied by 

 stick-built birds' nests which, in winter, are all empty. 

 They belong to one of that numerous Ethiopian genus, 

 the glossy starling (Spreo pulcher\ which possesses the 

 mother-wit to breed only in the season of rains. The 

 more typical desert-forms, on the other hand, nest right 

 through the most arid winter ; for we found the crested 



lark, finch-lark, and certhilauda 

 busily incubating from January on- 

 wards, while the sand-larks (Am- 

 momanes] delayed commencing till 

 April as more fully detailed else- 

 where; but on February i3th the 

 nest of a small grey shrike (Lanius 

 leuconotus] contained two eggs. 

 This merely to illustrate the topsy- 

 turvydom of Ethiopia. 



Besides the trio of small gazelles 

 already mentioned, the interior 

 desert claims other and larger game. 

 First to be met with comes that pair 

 of handsome cousins, the Ariel and 

 Addra gazelles. The habitat of 

 these two is definitely separated by 

 the Nile. The ariel, occupying the eastern area, is 

 described in our chapters on the Red Sea region, while 

 the addra or locally Ril roams far away westward into 

 Sahara. 



Still further away in the western deserts beyond the 

 limits which age and the crucial years lost through war 

 (1914-1918) have set to the author's desert wanderings 

 are found two other splendid types of the big African 

 mammalia, both highly specialised, but whose personal 

 acquaintance has, by the above causes, been denied him. 

 These two are the sabre-horned Oryx leucoryx, whose 



$/ 



ADDRA GAZELLE. 



(Photo from life.) 



