BLUE NILE AND BINDER RIVER 323 
new to science, Taterillus gyas (Ann. and Mag. Nat. 
Hist., 1918, p. 150). There were also ground-squirrels, 
pretty striped creatures of 2 lb. weight, that lived in 
holes and eschewed arboreal haunts. They sat up exactly 
as our British squirrels do, to eat with their fore-paws, 
and when alarmed stood bolt upright to reconnoitre, 
balancing on their tails. That appendage is dead-flat, 
the long lateral hair directed horizontally outward, more 
Bridled Bee-eater { Meropsfrenatus ). Paradise Whydah-Finches. 
like the plumes of an ostrich than the tail of a mammal. 
Small hares, weighing 3J to 3! lb., were numerous, and 
we also caught striped rats, spiny mice, and other 
members of that innumerable tribe. 
Beyond the dry bed of Dinder, lay forests more 
striking in their tropical luxuriance than any on White 
Nile. Huge trees jostled each other, many smothered 
in parasitic growths resembling a tracery of knotted 
ropes stretching aloft, or pendent in infinite bights like 
the rigging of an old-time “ East - Indiaman.” Cactus¬ 
like creepers adorned with orange and crimson blooms 
spread from trunk to trunk; and there were scansorial 
