THE FORESTS OF KORDOFAN 
113 
(from Jutland), dotterels (Char- asiaticus ), spur-winged, 
Kentish, and ring-plovers (AEg. dubia\ stone-curlews, 
and, alongside of these, rested . . . Cur lew-sandpipers 
and Little Stints from the Highest Arctic! 
Close by, on the river beyond, a long narrow sand-bank 
was crowded with crowned cranes, 500 yards of them, 
all placidly asleep, though the shores of their exiguous 
sanctuary were punctuated 
on either side by lines 
of fearsome crocodiles— 
strange such confidence 
when we know that these 
reptiles habitually prey on 
similar water-fowl ? From 
the stomach of a crocodile 
% 
we have extracted an entire 
darter ( Plotus ), so un¬ 
injured that it might have 
made a “ specimen.” But 
inter-relationship in wild¬ 
life still remains largely a 
closed book. Thus, in 
broad daylight, a disturbed 
lion will walk right past « Full _ up »_ Sunset| Kaka , March I3th| I9I9 . 
grazing antelopes without 
creating a symptom of alarm, or even, apparently, being 
recognised by his normal (nocturnal) prey. 
In the intervening channel a great pink pelican was 
teaching the piscatorial art to a half-grown youngster. 
Slowly paddling up-stream, beak half-immersed, at brief 
intervals she made a powerful forward lunge—or, if side¬ 
long, aided by a half-stroke of one wing. Invariably she 
pouched prey. The chick watched and emulated ; yet, 
industriously as he tried, never a victim could he secure, 
and it amused to watch his petulance as, disappointed, he 
demanded a dip into his mother’s well-stored pouch. One 
has read of other anglers content with a vicarious creel ? 
