46 SAVAGE SUDAN 



by taking cover (if need be, by digging a hole), and 

 sending the pinnace on an encircling cruise to drive the 

 geese in. In less than an hour I have secured eight 

 geese thus. Towards dusk, again, incoming shots may 

 be had by lying in wait at the spots where geese are 

 wont to pass the night. These spots, however, are apt 

 to be more or less awash, so that this evening-flighting 

 may prove a wet and dirty job. Nevertheless, the 

 wondrous scenes it reveals, when the whole western after- 

 glow is amove with a welter of converging hosts, and 

 when vespertinal silences are shocked by the crash of 

 an anserine chorus from ten thousand throats these 

 things alone are a sufficing reward. 



Frequently the battalions of geese are accompanied 

 by long-drawn files of cranes equally strident. The 

 two denominations, however, maintain strictly separate 

 camps. 



Most of the geese shot thus are of the Egyptian 

 species (Ckenalopex). An old gander exceeds 6 Ib. in 

 weight: the females average 4! Ib. The spur- winged 

 geese are more than twice this size and prefer to roost 

 dry-foot. One evening, having noticed a well-frequented 

 roosting-place, by taking post just before sundown, I 

 shot three of these big geese in half an hour's vigil : one 

 enormous gander (whose head I sketch) weighed 1 3^ Ib. 

 good, a second 12^ Ib., while a goose fell slightly below 

 12 Ib. These weights far exceed those of any European 

 wild-geese. 



The spurwing (like all the goose-tribe) normally feed 

 by day, grazing on the scantiest herbage, and roost by 

 night (usually on the drier islands and on firmer ground 

 than the oozes preferred by Chenalopex). But exception- 

 ally, and during full moon only, these geese also fly far 

 afield by night, as, on one occasion, we learnt thus. 

 We had missed our way back to the river, and while 

 rambling, half-lost, in the woods, a pack of geese came 

 winging right overhead in the gloaming. Upon seeing 



