VOYAGE ON WHITE NILE 
147 
close in the long grass—regular skulkers like jack-snipe, 
or rails, or burglars. It was practically impossible to put 
up a marked bird a second time. They were, more¬ 
over, extremely scarce, and we were lucky in securing 
two fine specimens that day. The second fell in the 
same instantaneous style, while yet I was wondering what 
it was. The annexed sketches give an idea of its curiously 
rounded wings and general appearance. 
We afterwards found these dark-coloured mirafras in 
two other localities; always extremely scarce, solitary, 
and skulking. It was only after traversing many a 
SOBAT Bush-Lark ('Mirajra sobatensis , Lynes). 
toilsome league on those dreary flats that we finally 
succeeded in securing nine specimens. We probably 
walked 90 miles for those nine! 
One incident in this prolonged hunt for mirafras fixed 
itself painfully in my memory. While pushing through 
tall grass against a strong head-wind, a spear-pointed 
blade pierced my right eye and my hunting ceased for 
twenty-four hours. 1 
1 A characteristic feature in these bush-larks (. Mirafra ) deserves passing 
note. In British East Africa (as related in On Safari, pp. 249 and 333) 
where I met with an allied species, Mirafra fischeri by name, my attention, 
was first attracted by the curious vibrating sound (not unlike the 
“drumming” of a snipe at home) produced as the bird was soaring 
upwards, skylark fashion. Nothing of this habit was observed in our Sobat 
mirafra, though the seasons were identical. 
