30 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
average 3 feet in height, while sparse thorns rise to 
double that. Each of these loftier thorns is occupied by 
stick-built birds’ nests which, in winter, are all empty. 
They belong to one of that numerous Ethiopian genus, 
the glossy starling {Sfireo Quicker), which possesses the 
mother-wit to breed only in the season of rains. The 
more typical desert-forms, on the other hand, nest right 
through the most arid winter; for we found the crested 
lark, finch-lark, and certhilauda 
busily incubating from January on¬ 
wards, while the sand-larks ( Am - 
momanes) delayed commencing till 
April—as more fully detailed else¬ 
where; but on February 13th the 
nest of a small grey shrike ( Lanius 
leuconotus) contained two eggs. 
This merely to illustrate the topsy¬ 
turvydom of Ethiopia. 
Besides the trio of small gazelles 
already mentioned, the interior 
desert claims other and larger game. 
First to be met with comes that pair 
of handsome cousins, the Ariel and 
Addra gazelles. The habitat of 
these two is definitely separated by 
the Nile. The ariel, occupying the eastern area, is 
described in our chapters on the Red Sea region, while 
the addra—or locally Ril —roams far away westward into 
Sahara. 
Still further away in the western deserts—beyond the 
limits which age and the crucial years lost through war 
(1914-1918) have set to the author’s desert wanderings— 
are found two other splendid types of the big African 
mammalia, both highly specialised, but whose personal 
acquaintance has, by the above causes, been denied him. 
These two are the sabre-horned Oryx leucoryx, whose 
Addra Gazelle. 
(Photo from life.) 
