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SAVAGE SUDAN 
at him, which was probably true)—that worthy Moslem 
intimated it was time for him to return to the ship and 
get dinner ready. Mahomed was little in sympathy with 
the animal-world. One evening there was a bat in my 
cabin and I got out a butterfly-net to secure it. “ Be 
careful,” screamed Mahomed, “him very long tooth!” . . . 
I lost that snake in a deep sun-crack, but wound up the 
evening with an openbill stork, three brace of sandgrouse 
[Pterocles quadricinctus ), and, just as dusk fell, with a 
couple of jackals (Canis anthus\ evidently paired; for, 
following one close behind the other, they essayed to trot 
A Family Feud.—Fiscal Shrikes. 
across a grass-glade down which I was returning—weights 
16 and 17J lb. 
A striking feature in the Openbill (almost as extra¬ 
ordinary as its “nut-cracker” mandibles) is the nature of 
what that bird is pleased to regard as feathers. The 
upper surface is normal, clad in long glossy hackle-like 
plumes, resplendent with silky metallic lustre; it is those 
on the belly that attract attention. Each plume 
terminates in a twisted tip like a bit of shining whale¬ 
bone or glittering sealing-wax, quite devoid of the 
normal web. In this particular openbill, the long over¬ 
hung scapulars were of a deep chestnut-brown, finely 
offset by the rich bronze-green wing-coverts beneath. 
