THE FORESTS OF KORDOFAN 109 
large vultures had already flown while quite a hundred 
yards away. 
Noble falcons such as peregrine and lanner, which 
memory (in northern lands) associates exclusively with 
wild and sequestered crag on mountain, moor, or sea- 
coast, here in Sudan, mildly occupy the palm-groves of 
villages, and content themselves with such lowly fare as 
doves, small birds, and reptiles—snakes, frogs, lizards, even 
locusts are not despised. 
All earlier sense of romance 
vanishes when one blows 
these fine birds out of a tree, 
or sitting careless on the 
ground. I remember shoot¬ 
ing a lanner falcon right 
inside the settlement of 
Fashoda ; while, close out¬ 
side, a beautiful Rufipennis 
buzzard—a most imposing 
object as seen on wing>— 
let me walk up and kill him 
at 25 yards with a puny 
•410-bore collecting-gun. I 
believe he was eating mole- 
crickets ! Again, while 
moored at Tewfikia, big falcons swept in mid-air amidst 
droves of doves, guinea-pigeons, and palm-swifts, within 
half-gunshot of our ship; while, close by, among the 
fringing riverside bush, drongos ( Dicrurus ) in dozens were 
busy fly-catching, all quite unconcerned. The element 
of fear seemed eliminated. Yet it was no true Elysium. 
The carnivores had not foresworn their function ; for 
next morning I watched a lanner falcon administer a 
clean knock-out to a sandgrouse from a passing pack 
after a splendid ringing flight. [An even more striking 
exhibition I witnessed a few days later at Khor Attar. 
A trip of garganeys—swiftest of all the duck-tribe—was 
Little Bittern. 
