254 SAVAGE SUDAN 



March ist, the other a week earlier near Renk. Here- 

 abouts the masses of whistling-teal and other water-fowl 

 that darken the sand-banks are oft interspersed with solid 

 patches in black and white, punctuated by flashes of 

 crimson, that recall the colours of oyster-catchers at 

 home. These patches are all scissorbills, which lie 

 flat asleep all day. Towards dusk they awake to sudden 

 activity, skimming the still surface in every direction, and 

 each bird leaving behind it a clear-cut "wake" where the 



"A CERTAIN LIVELINESS." 

 Serpent-Eagle attacking a Mamba near Lake No, February 2nd, 1914. 



curiously lengthened lower mandible rips through the 

 water. By day, their vacated place was occupied by birds 

 of diurnal type by hordes of chattering bee-eaters, 

 swallows, palm-swifts, martins, and sand-martins, hawking 

 over the river the last trio conspicuously smaller than 

 European forms ; and mixed with these were small terns 

 (whiskered, white-winged, and black), with a few of the 

 larger Caspian and gull-billed terns. 



Such was the tropical heat at Lake No, and such 

 (notwithstanding) the terrific energy of my collaborators, 

 who disregard alike the power of the sun and the terror of 



