382 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
unknown parasites. Lizards—some fiercely frilled, others 
of daring patterns—leered from rock-crannies or darted 
across burning boulders amidst which snakes also, in 
assorted sizes, glide from view. One of our ophidian 
captures proved to belong to a race previously unknown 
in Africa, whether specifically or generically, his nearest 
relatives inhabiting Syria and Persia. Contia africana 
is the title allotted to this scaly prize of 400 millimetres. 
I recall a nerve-trying hour when (not having the faintest 
idea whether the captive belonged to the deadly sect or 
otherwise) we were induc¬ 
ing him to leave a recep¬ 
tacle which was empty and 
enter a second which was 
half full of methylated 
spirit. The latter concoc¬ 
tion, he knew, was not 
healthy for serpents; but 
he had to go, and now has 
the honour and glory of 
being a “Type.” The 
abounding reptile-life pre¬ 
dicates the presence of the 
mongoose. One we shot in the act of chasing a lizard; 
another, of a sandy-fawn colour, was lost, wounded, in 
a rock-recess, or might almost certainly have proved to 
be Herpestes gracilis. 
Erkowit is not a big-game country. A few gazelles 
with ldipspringers and dikdik are found here, while 
hyenas and jackals abound. But ibex do not frequent 
the immediate neighbourhood, though farther south these 
fine game-animals are numerous. Our original pro¬ 
gramme had included an expedition to the ibex-country 
among the Karora hills, lying on the Eritrean border— 
“Bluebell Mountain” (so called because that homely 
flower flourishes on its dew-drenched heights) being our 
destination. These hills lie within two or three days 
Head of Erkowit Kite. 
