146 SAVAGE SUDAN 



tree they encountered after crossing leagues of open 

 veld. 



Up to that date Mr Butler had never had the luck, in 

 a dozen years' work in the Sudan, to secure a specimen of 

 the swallow-tailed kite ; hence it was no small pleasure to 

 us to present a specimen to the Khartoum Museum. A 

 few weeks later, however, Butler wrote us this charming 

 word-picture: "At last I have got myself two of those 

 exquisite little kites. Fancy, there were six of them, all 

 sitting alongside a young vulture in its nest ! The kites 

 kept returning again and again, and I got the two by 

 waiting under the nest. Each time the kites pitched, the 



big grey vulture - squab 

 lifted its head and chuckled 

 welcome ; and the little 

 white kites twittered and 

 mewed and folded their 

 long wings and sat in a 

 row all round the squab! 

 The vulture's nest (Otogyps 



THE SOBAT BUSH-LARK. nubicus] was on top^of a 



big thorn-tree, not in a 

 crag." This was in Kordofan. 



Another remarkable coincidence followed. We had 

 picked up our six kites and were still searching around in 

 case any more had fallen, when from the long grass at 

 my feet arose a bird that at once struck me as something 

 fresh. . . . Undoubtedly a lark of sorts, but extremely dark- 

 coloured, with broadly rounded wings and pale rufous quills 

 probably a Mirafra ? Ere such thoughts had time to 

 take shape in my mind the stranger fell dead, for Lowe is 

 a man of instant action shoot first, think after, is his 

 plan. Examination satisfied us that we had secured a 

 prize, and the anticipation subsequently proved correct, 

 the bird being described as new to science under the title 

 Mirafra sobatensis, Lynes. 



These dark bush-larks were invariably solitary, sitting 



