70 SAVAGE SUDAN 
of mimosas ; also some of a smaller kind, Lovat’s bustard, 
of which we shot several. A bird which puzzled me for 
long-, and one of the last one would expect in arid wood¬ 
lands, was a stone-curlew 
(the big speckled species, 
CEdicnemus affinis ); when 
half-seen, flying low be¬ 
neath spreading boughs, 
with their white-spangled 
wings, they looked more 
like big nightjars till I 
succeeded in shooting a 
Stone-Curlews. P air - Subsequently we 
found them regularly fre¬ 
quenting the most arid thickets far from water. Those 
by the riverside belonged to a smaller species, striped 
rather than spotted like these, and also noisier. The 
scientific title of these latter is, I think, CE. senegalensis. 
Another odd bird to find in the dry thorn-jungles is the 
black-headed heron. The swarming beetles explain the 
presence of both birds in such incon¬ 
gruous surroundings. Guinea-fowl of 
course abounded, the same species, 
the Abyssinian helmeted guinea-fowl 
(.Numida fitilorhyncha ), as we had 
first shot at Lake Baringo. On our 
way back to the ship I killed several, 
and was amused to see our Baggara 
friends retrieve winged birds after 
a course of hundreds of yards through 
deep grass and scrub; when we 
overtook them, they were busy cut¬ 
ting the throats of the game with Black-headed Heron. 
their enormous spears. They also 
attacked a hare with throwing-knobsticks. Whether 
these weapons actually struck the animal or not, I could 
not be sure ; but at any rate a lurcher-dog of theirs gave 
