250 SAVAGE SUDAN 



at him, which was probably true) that worthy Moslem 

 intimated it was time for him to return to the ship and 

 get dinner ready. Mahomed was little in sympathy with 

 the animal-world. One evening there was a bat in my 

 cabin and I got out a butterfly-net to secure it. " Be 

 careful," screamed Mahomed, "him very long tooth!" . . . 

 I lost that snake in a deep sun-crack, but wound up the 

 evening with an openbill stork, three brace of sandgrouse 

 {Pterocles quadricinctus\ and, just as dusk fell, with a 

 couple of jackals (Canis anthus\ evidently paired; for, 

 following one close behind the other, they essayed to trot 



A FAMILY FEUD. FISCAL SHRIKES. 



across a grass-glade down which I was returning weights 

 1 6 and 17^ Ib. 



A striking feature in the Openbill (almost as extra- 

 ordinary as its "nut-cracker" mandibles) is the nature of 

 what that bird is pleased to regard as feathers. The 

 upper surface is normal, clad in long glossy hackle-like 

 plumes, resplendent with silky metallic lustre ; it is those 

 on the belly that attract attention. Each plume 

 terminates in a twisted tip like a bit of shining whale- 

 bone or glittering sealing-wax, quite devoid of the 

 normal web. In this particular openbill, the long over- 

 hung scapulars were of a deep chestnut-brown, finely 

 offset by the rich bronze-green wing-coverts beneath. 



