322 SAVAGE SUDAN 



are aware of the fact [a perplexing epithet that! but 

 it is quite all right and sounds scientific]. The eagle 

 sits regardless, while the grivets, in full view, spreading 

 wide their forearms, squat flat in fantastic attitudes on 

 the open sand to drink their fill. These attitudes may be 

 impossible to portray ; and the annexed attempts to do so 



very unwise There are, however, occasions when 



self-confidence is misplaced, and the thirsty grivet is 

 snapped up by a crocodile. 



One night three elephants visited our home-pool 

 and the spoor of giraffe approached but never quite 



GRIVETS DRINKING BINDER RIVER. 



touched it ; otherwise the larger animals were here 

 confined to reedbuck, oribi, doubtfully duiker, gazelle, and 

 wart-hog, l with hyenas and troops of baboons. Our 

 activities were chiefly confined to birds and the minor 

 mammals, of which latter we secured, inter alia, a 

 Ratel, male, 26! lb., porcupine, jerbilles and jerboas 

 little cinnamon-hued sprites with big ears, immensely 

 exaggerated hind-legs, and long tufted tails. One of 

 these captured, Mr Oldfield Thomas has described as 



1 A wild boar of unascertained identity has long been reported from 

 Sennar. We saw nothing of it ; but many rootings of wild pigs noticed 

 on the Binder River were curiously square, as though cut with a spade. 

 Rootings such as these I noticed nowhere else. 



