286 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
before and pursued the first that I saw for miles. These 
larger birds, by the way, are rather too wild to secure 
with the “Tomtit gun” (generally I use the Paradox for 
collecting, but that day had taken the rifle instead, in 
order to get a gazelle for the larder). The hornbills, as 
a rule, feed on scorpions, insects, and creeping things ; 
but this one, when first seen, was critically selecting the 
yellow berries of an evergreen from a branch directly 
overhead. Such was the studium sequendi that, during 
this chase, we ran into a little group of elephants unseen 
among thick bush; yet so anxious was I to hold 
Lophoce 7 'o$ in view as almost to miss the rarer spectacle 
of the pachyderms moving away. When at length I got 
my shot, the hornbill flew off with his customary flopping, 
undulated flight, and all looked like a clean miss. I kept 
an eye on him and in the centre of an open glade, 
200 yards away, the bird suddenly wheeled and settled. 
Thinking this was an odd place for a hornbill to alight, 
I marked the precise spot and was delighted to find my 
prize lying dead. This hornbill is plainly plumaged, 
mottled grey-brown and white; its big black beak, 
curved and quite disproportionate, is heavily toothed 
and near the base displays a curious inset plate, as it 
were of ivory. This was near Gondokoro. 
Two other bird-species deserve note : the first a white- 
browed coucal (Centropus superciliosus ), the second a 
smart stoutly - built hawk quite unknown to me. It 
proved to be a black-shouldered kite in its mottled dress 
of immaturity, and in no wise resembling one’s ideal of 
a kite. When shot, it was carrying in its claws a purple¬ 
headed lizard. Next day I watched another capture a 
big locust-like beast after a twisting, tortuous pursuit, and 
sketched him as he perched on a dead stump to devour it. 
The white-browed coucal (or bush-cuckoo) is a denizen 
of these dry woods, but has a first cousin who eschews 
dry places and seeks his pleasure in reedy marsh and 
aquatic jungle. On one occasion, when I had landed 
