262 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
the ‘ morning-flight ’ each dawn, and the whole show was 
limited to an odd string- or two of whistling-teal and a 
few of those black-and-white things that in Ethiopia pass 
for geese (spurwing and comb). I did, however, notice 
this morning several shelducks that differed from the 
ordinary Casarca in having conspicuously dark flanks.” 
Of course in a stretch of 400 miles there occur 
nameless spots where the stream opens out a bit and 
where the dull, dead monotony of lifelessness is suspended. 
Such a place is Shambe, whence sets forth the long 
overland trail to Rumbek, Wau, and Meshra-el-Rek, 
388 miles away in 
the Bahr - el - Ghazal. 
In the open waters by 
Shambe huge croco¬ 
diles (accompanied by 
packs of pelicans, 
plovers, scissor - bills, 
stilts, and sand-pipers 
of sorts) lie slumber¬ 
ing on slimy mud- 
banks, while hippos 
in hundreds gambol, grunt, and blow in the lateral 
lagoons. Even in the Sudd itself there occur occasional 
oases of solid ground—(fragments, it may be, of old- 
time banks)—whereon for a space trees grow and a normal 
animal-life appears. With these exceptions, there occurs 
nothing, hour after hour, to relieve the dead blank of 
dismal swamp—nothing, unless it be the flop-flop of 
some heron’s flight, or the subaquatic activities of 
darters. 
One fine animal - prize unquestionably inhabits the 
Sudd; that is the Situtunga, a swamp-antelope specialised 
for semi-amphibian existence, and provided with immensely 
elongated hoofs enabling it to traverse quaking-bog, 
oozes, and the thin scum of floating vegetation that 
conceals impassable deeps. In the Sudd, where non- 
Gqliath Heron on Wing. 
