398 SAVAGE SUDAN 



Kotunbul, were nesting small dark herons resembling night- 

 herons with telescopic necks closing down into their shoulders. 

 The nests were built of grass and rushes, with a few twigs ; 

 eggs four in number, like those of the reef-herons close by, but 

 smaller and of a deeper blue. All were hard-sat. These birds 

 were green bitterns. 



SANDGROUSE. Several shot on Kamaran and other islands, 

 coming down to drink at the wells in the dry season ; some, 

 however, breed there since young were caught hardly able to 

 fly. These sandgrouse may have been Pterocles lichtensteini or 

 possibly Pt. exustus. 



PARIS AN FALCON (Falco concolor}. This hawk is charac- 

 teristic of the Red Sea islands, the Farisan group in particular 

 being a main stronghold hence I venture to christen it in that 

 name. On Kotunbul Island, these small dark-grey falcons 

 were numerous and several nests found. " These were mostly," 

 Nichol writes, "simply depressions in the sandy debris 

 accumulated in angles or shallow clefts in the rocks ; but others 

 had built up fairly big bundles of twigs. One nest contained 

 three young, another three eggs, and a third, one egg. They 

 were certainly late-nesting." 



The eggs brought home are of kestrel type, though paler 

 than average British specimens. Butler writes : " I should 

 say these were certainly eggs of the beautiful little dark-grey 

 Falco concolor. I thought so directly I saw them, and the eggs 

 agree well with Heuglin's two figures and measurements. He 

 writes : ' Not rare on the uninhabited rocky islands of the 

 southern half of Red Sea. Their breeding-season is July- 

 August and the nest very simple the two to three eggs lying 

 on an underlayer of sand in a cranny of the rock. Occasion- 

 ally, however, we found some surrounded by dry twigs. Falco 

 concolor lives mostly in pairs or families ; but we have observed 

 three to six pairs together on cliffs of quite limited extent.'" 



HEMPRICH'S GULL (Larus hempricht}. The gulls' eggs 

 brought home are all of kittiwake type that is, of a dull stone- 

 colour speckled with chocolate-brown and submerged markings 

 of pale slate-blue. These, Butler has no doubt, belong to 

 Hemprich's gull, since they agree precisely with Heuglin's 



