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SAVAGE SUDAN 
in lavender and chestnut (. Emheriza ccesid), indigo finches 
(. Hypochcera ultramarina ), waxbills (Estrilda), fire-finches 
( Lag-onosticta) —all these three, feathered gems—together 
with innumerable warblers. These latter, however, in 
winter are silent. The only local songster at this season 
is the bulbul ( Pycnonotus arsinde ), whose triple flute-like 
trill never wearies the ear, despite ceaseless iteration. 
Many of our familiar European warblers make their 
winter-quarters here; but all maintain, not only the 
strictest silence, but many an unwonted seclusion. Thus, 
for example, the conspicuous rufous warbler ( Aedon 
g'alactodes) that in Spanish springtide almost “leaps to 
the eye,” here skulks so persistently that but for some 
fugitive glimpse, or the flirt of its boldly barred tail, one 
might never suspect its presence. 1 
Not all creatures, however, appreciate the amenities 
of civilisation—there are those to which such conditions 
are anathema ; and the little sunbirds furnish an example 
thereof. When, after the reconquest, Khartoum lay in 
ruins—when the hateful Sodom-apple ( Calotropis procerd) 
flourished where streets had stood — the particular sun- 
bird that then adorned a desolation was not the pretty 
“Pulchella” just described, but an allied form, even 
smaller, the metallic sunbird (. Nectarinia metallica ). 
But, so soon as reconstruction commenced, and more 
civilised shrubs—such as Erythrina, oleander, sessaban, 
etc.—had displaced that emblem of stark desolation, the 
Sodom-apple, the change at once drove out that tiny 
barbaric beauty “Metallica,” and its vacated place was 
re-occupied by its sybarite cousin, “Pulchella” aforesaid. 
1 Following is a list of our British summer warblers observed wintering 
at Khartoum :—Chiffchaff and willow-wren ; also icterine warbler (Hypolais 
pallida ), blackcap (and also orphean) warblers ; lesser whitethroats in 
swarms, redstart, whinchat, and wheatear ; swallow, sand-martin, - and 
swift. Sedge- and reed-warblers have also been recorded, and the garden- 
warbler more rarely. Red-throated pipits (Anthus cervinus ) abound, with 
tree-pipits in lesser evidence. Some of the above, of course, are not 
strictly warblers. None will accuse the swift of that quality. 
