288 



SAVAGE SUDAN 



and carry off precious bird-specimens right under the 

 collector's eye, but perches on withy-fences tearing at 

 the strips of hippo-flesh hung thereon to dry by native 

 hunters. This coucal, moreover, with its powerful beak, 

 smashes to fragments the strong- shells of the big land- 

 snails so common along White Nile. These it carries 

 to some mound or stump convenient to serve as an 



TNSTINCT AT FAULT "KITE OVER" (Bush-Cuckoo). 



anvil among the cane-brakes such mounds are often 

 completely encircled by a ring of broken snail-shells. 1 



A charming little bird, specially characteristic of this 

 region, I had well-nigh forgotten. It was the sweltering 

 noontide hour, and, while busy writing up notes on the 

 poop, a low sweet song in minor key caught my ear. Six 



1 In the crop of a coucal of the white-browed species (Cenlropus super- 

 ciliosus) shot on the Binder River, Lynes found the remains of a mouse 

 the femur measuring ij inches while the stomach contained fragments 

 and feathers of a finch. Clearly this is a bird of prey. Among the cuckoo- 

 tribe, by the way, such an organ as a crop is normally omitted ! 



