234 SAVAGE SUDAN 



else was within sight ; yet those posts marked the 

 Government Station of Khor Attar. 



Hard by, a broad stagnant backwater bends away 

 from the river, circling inland for a league. Here I spent 

 a few days, and seldom has ornithologist enjoyed more 

 entrancing scenes. To recapitulate all the infinite variety 

 of Ethiopian water- fowl geese, ducks, darters, ibis, 

 herons, storks, and the rest is unnecessary, or rather 

 superfluous. Suffice it to say they filled the landscape. 



Fleets of pelicans whitened acres of water, some 

 gleaming pink in the low sun-rays ; others passing over- 

 head in marshalled skeins, every wing-beat in unison. 



One's earlier introduction to the pelican (which weighs 

 a stone-and-a-half and displays no visible agility) 

 suggests doubt as to how so cumbrous a bird can gain 

 its livelihood by catching prey so active as fish. One 

 answer thereto was afforded this morning. Flying a yard 

 above the surface, six of these giant birds came speeding 

 towards me. Suddenly the leader checked : wings were 

 thrown aback, great pink feet shot forward as though 

 to alight downwards dropped the beak, and he plunged 

 head-first. That is, both beak, head, and neck totally 

 disappeared under water ere his body sat afloat. Next 

 moment the dripping beak reappeared, was erected 

 vertically, and the captured prey (as one could clearly 

 see) was unpouched and gorged! Surely for so apparently 

 clumsy a bird this was a smart performance: (i) to 

 descry fish under water while yet on wing, and (2) to catch 

 those fish by a flying header? It was a feat worthy 

 of an osprey and (unless you have seen it) incredible 

 for a pelican. 



Since then I have witnessed similar performances, 

 though none so strikingly clever and effective as that 

 first spectacle. The pelican, in an ordinary way, swims 

 slowly forward, keenly watching, and with beak one- third 

 immersed ; then with a sudden powerful lunge forward 

 or sidelong the quarry is empouched. Should the 



