KHARTOUM AND OMDURMAN 303 



and despise our European calendars and all the rules 

 that depend thereon. 1 



On the apex of our Erythrina sat a third fairy-form, 

 completing a charming trio. This last was a tiny African 

 dove, scarcely bigger than a wagtail and known to science 

 as (Ena capensis. So gentle an epithalamium was he 

 cooing that, although the heaving of his breast was 

 distinctly perceptible, yet no sound reached one's ear 



LONG-TAILED DOVES ((Ena capensis) ON OUR ERYTHRINA. 



beyond a few yards' distance. Hard by, at an irrigation 

 channel, two bigger doves (Turtur senegalensis and T. 

 semitorqualus], with hosts of golden sparrows, serins, and 

 weaver- finches, were busy drinking; while amidst the sunlit 

 foliage around flitted Nubian and masked shrikes, buntings 



1 Silver-bills breed continuously throughout the winter, building their 

 domed nests among the feathery foliage of the sessaban trees (Parkinsonta), 

 a yellow-blossomed evergreen ; and it was pretty to watch their joint labour, 

 as one of the pair worked outside the structure, the other within. In the 

 same trees, golden weaver-finches were also constructing pendent nurseries; 

 though their dates, we thought, fell a trifle later ; till, in March, a small 

 snake was observed coiled up near one of their nests, and, on being shot, 

 his gullet was found full of callow weavers ! 



