THE FORESTS OF KORDOFAN 



109 



large vultures had already flown while quite a hundred 

 yards away. 



Noble falcons such as peregrine and lanner, which 

 memory (in northern lands) associates exclusively with 

 wild and sequestered crag on mountain, moor, or sea- 

 coast, here in Sudan, mildly occupy the palm-groves of 

 villages, and content themselves with such lowly fare as 

 doves, small birds, and reptiles snakes, frogs, lizards, even 

 locusts are not despised. 

 All earlier sense of romance 

 vanishes when one blows 

 these fine birds out of a tree, 



or sitting careless on the i 



ground. I remember shoot- 

 ing a lanner falcon right 

 inside the settlement of 

 Fashoda ; while, close out- 

 side, a beautiful Rufipennis 

 buzzard a most imposing 

 object as seen on wing 

 let me walk up and kill him 

 at 25 yards with a puny 

 4io-bore collecting-gun. I 

 believe he was eating mole- 

 crickets ! Again, while 

 moored at Tewfikia, big falcons swept in mid-air amidst 

 droves of doves, guinea-pigeons, and palm-swifts, within 

 half-gunshot of our ship ; while, close by, among the 

 fringing riverside bush, drongos (Dicrurus) in dozens were 

 busy fly-catching, all quite unconcerned. The element 

 of fear seemed eliminated. Yet it was no true Elysium. 

 The carnivores had not foresworn their function ; for 

 next morning I watched a lanner falcon administer a 

 clean knock-out to a sandgrouse from a passing pack 

 after a splendid ringirfg flight. [An even more striking 

 exhibition I witnessed a few days later at Khor Attar. 

 A trip of garganeys swiftest of all the duck-tribe was 



LITTLE BITTERN. 



