286 SAVAGE SUDAN 



before and pursued the first that I saw for miles. These 

 larger birds, by the way, are rather too wild to secure 

 with the "Tomtit gun" (generally I use the Paradox for 

 collecting, but that day had taken the rifle instead, in 

 order to get a gazelle for the larder). The hornbills, as 

 a rule, feed on scorpions, insects, and creeping things ; 

 but this one, when first seen, was critically selecting the 

 yellow berries of an evergreen from a branch directly 

 overhead. Such was the studium sequendi that, during 

 this chase, we ran into a little group of elephants unseen 

 among thick bush ; yet so anxious was I to hold 

 Lophoceros in view as almost to miss the rarer spectacle 

 of the pachyderms moving away. When at length I got 

 my shot, the hornbill flew off with his customary flopping, 

 undulated flight, and all looked like a clean miss. I kept 

 an eye on him and in the centre of an open glade, 

 200 yards away, the bird suddenly wheeled and settled. 

 Thinking this was an odd place for a hornbill to alight, 

 I marked the precise spot and was delighted to find my 

 prize lying dead. This hornbill is plainly plumaged, 

 mottled grey -brown and white; its big black beak, 

 curved and quite disproportionate, is heavily toothed 

 and near the base displays a curious inset plate, as it 

 were of ivory. This was near Gondokoro. 



Two other bird-species deserve note : the first a white- 

 browed coucal (Centropus super ciliosus], the second a 

 smart stoutly -built hawk quite unknown to me. It 

 proved to be a black-shouldered kite in its mottled dress 

 of immaturity, and in no wise resembling one's ideal of 

 a kite. When.shot, it was carrying in its claws a purple- 

 headed lizard. Next day I watched another capture a 

 big locust-like beast after a twisting, tortuous pursuit, and 

 sketched him as he perched on a dead stump to devour it. 



The white-browed coucal (or bush-cuckoo) is a denizen 

 of these dry woods, but has a first cousin who eschews 

 dry places and seeks his pleasure in reedy marsh and 

 aquatic jungle. On one occasion, when I had landed 



