234 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
else was within sight; yet those posts marked the 
Government Station of Khor Attar. 
Hard by, a broad stagnant backwater bends away 
from the river, circling inland for a league. Here I spent 
a few days, and seldom has ornithologist enjoyed more 
entrancing scenes. To recapitulate all the infinite variety 
of Ethiopian water-fowl — geese, ducks, darters, ibis, 
herons, storks, and the rest—is unnecessary, or rather 
superfluous. Suffice it to say they filled the landscape. 
Fleets of pelicans whitened acres of water, some 
gleaming pink in the low sun-rays; others passing over¬ 
head in marshalled skeins, every wing-beat in unison. 
Ones earlier introduction to the pelican (which weighs 
a stone-and-a-half and displays no visible agility) 
suggests doubt as to how so cumbrous a bird can gain 
its livelihood by catching prey so active as fish. One 
answer thereto was afforded this morning. Flying a yard 
above the surface, six of these giant birds came speeding 
towards me. Suddenly the leader checked : wings were 
thrown aback, great pink feet shot forward—as though 
to alight—downwards dropped the beak, and he plunged 
head-first. That is, both beak, head, and neck totally 
disappeared under water ere his body sat afloat. Next 
moment the dripping beak reappeared, was erected 
vertically, and the captured prey (as one could clearly 
see) was unpouched and gorged! Surely for so apparently 
clumsy a bird this was a smart performance:—(i) to 
descry fish under water while yet on wing, and (2) to catch 
those fish by a flying header? It was a feat worthy 
of an osprey and (unless you have seen it) incredible 
for a pelican. 
Since then I have witnessed similar performances, 
though none so strikingly clever and effective as that 
first spectacle. The pelican, in an ordinary way, swims 
slowly forward, keenly watching, and with beak one* third 
immersed; then with a sudden powerful lunge—forward 
or sidelong—the quarry is empouched. Should the 
