BLUE NILE AND BINDER RIVER 317 



booted eagles (Aquila Pennatd), a species not previously 

 recorded in modern Sudan though familiar to me in Spain. 

 Both these eagles (now in the Khartoum Museum) were 

 in the dark phase of plumage that is, their undersides 

 were deep chocolate-brown for this species is guilty of 

 a colour-dimorphism. Later, near Singa, I recognised 

 one of the light-breasted type ; so that both forms occur 

 in the Sudan. 



[One morning as dawn broke a violent cachinnation of many 

 guinea-fowl led me to go and see what the row was all about. 

 Perched in double and triple tiers around the clay ridges 

 of a sort of " wash-out " facing the river, were assembled 



PARADISE WHYDAH-FINCH (Steganura paradisea). 



half the "poultry" of the parish their long necks on full stretch 

 and all vehemently protesting against something. By advancing 

 in flank, I perceived the cause of the uproar to be a big spotted 

 hyena, with half-grown cub, drinking at the precise spot whereat 

 the " guineas " were wont to water. That morning I flushed two 

 tiny button-quails and shot a fledgling bush-shrike or bru-bru 

 (Nilaus afer) a little index serving to show that that species 

 must nest in November. My morning's bag further included 

 a paradise whydah-finch (Steganura paradisea), no bigger than 

 a sparrow, but with a tail two feet long ! a woodchat shrike, 

 also two African white-winged tits (Parus leucomelas}, and a 

 black bush-robin (Cercotrichas podobe], in figure not unlike our 

 homely redbreast, but of strictly sombre dress to my shame, 

 I must add that it was singing merrily. A curious bird shot 

 here was an insectivorous kingfisher which, belying its name, 



