BIRDS OF THE MARSH 207 had lost a valuable trophy ! The sudden dash of two long, low animals from the water-side in the evening demonstrated that walks abroad are liable to be productive of incident.

Birds became more numerous than I had noticed since Sennaar had been left, but many familiar voices were absent. The great saddle-billed stork {Ephipporhyncus Senegalensis) walks in a preoccupied way, searching for frogs and small fish ; his enormous bill is orange, vermilion, and black, his wings are sooty, and his breast white with a circular " pom " of orange on it. In Uganda he is prote cted, but here there is less reason for this measure, as he is fairly plentiful, and inhabits districts not much visited by sportsmen or collectors.

Black divers crowd a tree here and there, drying their wings in a quaint posture, for they are extended as if spatchcocked or crucified, standing stiffly nailed out. White cranes slip along with their serpentine necks, their heads and bills being of no greater diameter, and the wee black and white kingfisher hovers busily, with his head bent down at right angles to his body, gazing intently and then dropping plumb.

Old man marabouts still put in an appearance, and the harsh cry of the crested crane makes itself heard. The straw-coloured tuft of this bird with the black velvet behind it makes the distinguishing badge of one Sudanese battalion.

A brown eagle sits on a tree by the river ; the