BEYOND THE SUDD 297 



allotted destination, say 500 miles away. At any rate, 

 from that altitude they set their course and proceeded due 

 N.N.E. to Gedaref? (see Ibis, 1905, P- 378). Abdim's 

 stork, though common in winter in this region, I never 

 once observed myself north of the Sudd ; but in spring 

 it proceeds northwards (as here indicated) to breed. 



The common white stork of Europe winters south of 

 the Sudan beyond the Equator; for few will ever be seen 

 here before about mid-March. Thenceforward, as spring 

 advances, great mobs of these 

 storks, ever mindful of their 

 "appointed season," pass 

 northward, often halting for 

 a rest (and a gorge on 

 grasshoppers and locusts) 

 on these Nilotic plains. But 

 during his hibernal absence, 

 the stork takes care to leave 

 a locum tenens in this cousin- 

 like form yclept Ciconia 

 abdimii. 



By a backwater on the ABDIM'S STORK. 



riverside that same afternoon 



(March gth) probed a group of four waders. There was 

 a greenshank, two marsh-sandpipers, and ... a spotted 

 redshank, the latter being the first of this scarce species 

 I had noticed in Sudan (and, incidentally, only the second 

 in my life, the earlier instance having occurred only seven 

 months before ; to wit, on the Northumbrian coast on the 

 2Qth of the preceding August). The spotted redshank 

 is certainly the most graceful of all its graceful tribe. 

 Owing to the extreme length of its legs, with a relatively 

 short bill, its gait and poses when feeding are specifically 

 distinguishable, being even more delicate than those of 

 the " greyhound-like '** greenshank. Here we had oppor- 

 tunity of comparing three fine types in close juxtaposition, 

 and Totanus fuscus is a type by itself. 



