BLUE NILE AND BINDER RIVER 325 



shooting" ; yet it demands accurate knowledge, judgment, 

 and quick decision always to select the desideratum that 

 is, the specimen which counts. 



For the National Collection at South Kensington we 

 brought home from the Blue Nile and Binder rivers 

 upwards of 500 specimens of bird and beast. I will here 

 confine my remarks to half-a-dozen of my favourite 

 Raptores. 



RUEPPELL'S VULTURE. One of these extremely handsome 

 vultures perched on a tree 100 yards from our camp and 

 I got him with rifle. This species is one of the rarest of 

 vultures in the Sudan ; we only shot one other in. Kordofan. 

 Dimensions : 



Weight. Length. Expanse. 



Male (adult) . . . 14 Ib. 41 ins. 100 ins. 



Female ,, . .16,, 42 102 ins. 



WHITE-HEADED VULTURE (Gyps octipitalis}. These also 

 belong to the aristocracy of their caste. We shot them both 

 on Dinder, Blue, and White Niles common everywhere and 

 found four nests of this species, all in trees, as under : 



1913. February Two nests, each with half-grown "squab." 



1914. 28 Nest with half-feathered young. 



1914. 14 Full-feathered nestling, weight 6^ Ib., expanse 46f ins. 



Weight. Length. Expanse. 



Male (adult) . . . 8 Ib. 32 ins. 84 ins. 



Female . 9 34 88 



WHITE-BACKED GRIFFON (Gyps africanus].K pair were 

 shot on Dinder, but seen nowhere else in the Sudan. 

 Recognisable by the white " mirror" between the wings, similar 

 to that in Bonelli's eagle. Dimensions : 



Weight. Length. Expanse. 



Male (adult) . . 7\ Ib. 35 ins. 85 ins. 



Female . . 8 38 88 



HARRIER -EAGLE, white-breasted (Circaetus gallicus}. 

 Harrier-Eagle, dark-breasted (Circaetus cinereus}. The first- 

 named, our old friend "the serpent-eagle of Spain, we shot 

 both here and on White Nile, also in the Red Sea Province. 

 But on the Dinder we. came across another eagle obviously 



