Diary of Birds seen on the White Nile.



government station of Shambd is situated. Here we passed

several Hippopotami, some black Storks and some duck. At

Shambd we landed and walked to a native village inhabited

by the Dinka negroes. It was a great relief to be again on

shore, as we had not left the boat since daybreak on the 7th,

and were feeling rather cramped. The Dinkas are a less pre¬

possessing people than the Shilluks. Their idea of clothing and

ornamentation apparently consists almost entirely in whitening

the body with wood ash. They possess, however, large herds of

cattle, which form the principal part of their wealth. Some of

these cattle had humps, others had not. Their most noticeable

feature, however, was the splendid pair of horns borne by each

beast. They were enormous and curved somewhat in the manner

of those of Highland cattle. There were several varieties, and

I see that Artin Pasha, in his recent book on the Soudan, states

that he was informed that the herdsmen manipulate the horns

when the beasts are young.


Feb. nth. This morning we wooded atKenissa and after¬

wards passed again through banks of Papyrus and Ambash reeds.

Presently we came to a few trees, which are not too frequent on

this part of the river, covered with parasitic creepers. Hippo¬

potami are common here. We came across small parties of six,

eight and ten together, and at one spot, where we turned a sharp

corner, I counted no less than twenty in sight at once. Croco¬

diles were frequently seen. During the morning I saw several

specimens of the Hammerhead Heron ( Scofins umbretta). These

birds were generally in pairs, though I also saw some small

flocks of them. Bee-eaters of various species are very common

here. This evening a Gecko appeared on board. I caught it

and shut it up in my cabin in the hope that it may reduce the

number of insects there.


Feb. 12th. We arrived early this morning at the Govern¬

ment station at Bor, where there is a rubber plantation. We left

at 6 a.m., and three hours later arrived at Malek, a station of the

Church Missionary Society. In the surrounding country are

numerous large ant-heaps (Termites), which are used by the

Dinkas as look-out places. The appearance of these people is

extremely barbaric. In addition to those whitened with wood-



