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SAVAGE SUDAN 



nor more brilliant of hue than our own feathered friends 

 at home. The idea is a pretty little popular illusion. 



Like most illusions it has some slight basis of fact. 

 Certainly a tourist steaming- along the Upper Nile, under 

 the forests of the erstwhile Lado Enclave, might be 

 forgiven an outburst of rapture. For at frequent 

 intervals he passes by huge trees literally encarmined 



GREY HORNBILL. 



DHURRA-FlNCH 



{Pyromelana franciscana) 



IN SUMMER DRESS. 



by thousands of the most brilliant birds in Nature. 

 These are Nubian bee-eaters, and no preserved speci- 

 men can convey even a faint appreciation of their 

 full glory in life. Not only their selected trees but the 

 whole ambient air flashes with these gorgeous creatures, 

 chattering and wheeling, poising and darting in headlong 

 sweeps, their scarlet and emerald-green lustre gleaming 

 like thousands of gems in the fierce African sunlight. 

 Often the assemblage includes three other species of 

 bee-eaters, each vying with the other in an amazing 

 rivalry of bright hues ; while as joint-tenants they may 



