112 SAVAGE SUDAN 



lightning" patterns that would fix a colour-protectionist 

 in recurrent hysterics ; hardly less striking the gaunt 

 marabou ; and out on every shallow stalks the Goliath 

 heron, well-named and conspicuous afar. Among colossal 

 forms, figures the great pink pelican, with wild-geese 

 double the size of anything we are wont to see at home ; 

 besides ubiquitous mobs of tropical cranes and storks 



SADDLE-BILLED JABIRU. 

 (Jebel Ahmed Agha, January 29th, 1913.) 



taller than school-boys. Then there are the spook-like 

 openbills, egrets, and ibises in varied colours to name 

 but a few. 



At midday we halted by a lateral lagoon, everywhere 

 spangled with groups and conclaves of all these creatures, 

 many asleep, others probing or preening, and all reflected 

 in the mirror-like surface. Chestnut-red jacanas coursed 

 over floating lily-leaves, and the foreground was* adorned 

 with graceful stilts, greenshanks in two sizes, godwits 



