VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 67 



A few minutes later the sun arose. In his early rays 

 a thousand mimosa-trunks gleamed crimson-red against 

 massed green and golden foliage ; a pair of hornbills 

 (special favourites of mine) fluttered, flopped, and tumbled 

 in eccentric flight ; a row of brilliant bee-eaters posed 

 along a bough ; the murmurations of doves filled the still 

 air, and a pair of the lovely spot-winged species almost 

 brushed my face in wanton play all Nature was gay, 

 and my spirits revived. 



Of course we followed the lion's spoor for miles, the 



"FLUTTER, FLOP, AND TUMBLE." 

 Hornbills in Kordofan January 28th, 1913. 



Baggara proving wondrous apt at tracking. Slowly he 

 had moved forward into a region of dense bush bordered 

 beyond by lagoons white with pelicans. Soon all trace 

 was lost. It was while following the lion -spoor this 

 morning that we noticed the curious fact (more particu- 

 larly referred to later) that close by where the beast of 

 prey had passed only a few minutes before, groups of 

 gazelles still grazed undisturbed. Incidentally we ascer- 

 tained (on this and other occasions) that these Kordofan 

 forests are, in places, of no great depth interiorly rather 

 they consist of a series of broad riverain belts of wood, 

 expanding locally into double or treble zones, intercepted 

 with strips of marsh or prairie. These forests abound 



