m 
rHE IBIS. 
EIGHTH SERIES. 
No. V. JANUARY 1902. 
I. — On a Collection of Birds from Shendi, Sudan. By tlie 
Hon. N. Charles Rothschild and A. F. R. Wollaston. 
(Plate I.) 
After a six days' journey from Cairo we arrived at Shendi 
on February 16th_, 1901. Various misadventures had delayed 
us on our way into the Sudan, so^ with a prospect of only five 
weeks before we should have to turn northwards again, we 
determined to make our camp at Shendi and to explore the 
neighbouring grouDd as thoroughly as possible, rather than 
attempt to hurry over a wide tract of country. 
Shendi is situated on the east bank of the Nile, about 
midway between the Atbara River and Khartum ; it is 
therefore well within the area of regular rainfall, which may 
be roughly said to begin at the Atbara. Our choice of a 
collecting-ground fell upon Shendi partly on account of its 
comparatively luxuriant vegetation, which is richer than 
that of any other part of the Nile Valley between Khartum 
and Assuan (Shendi has even been called the garden of the 
Sudan), partly because we expected to find there the northern 
limit of many tropical species, partly also on account of the 
fact that since the year 1850, when Mr. Galton collected 
near the Fifth Cataract, no ornithologist has paid more than a 
passing visit to this part of the country. 
The fact that Shendi is the only place in the Sudan where 
it is possible to station cavalry is accounted for by the 
SER. VITI. VOL. II. B 
