PRODUCTS. 239 utility. I found, however, that they might be instructed for sporting, with very little trouble.

There are very few cats in the countiy, hence the rats and the mice are so tame that they will run across the feet of a person by day-time. If anything be thrown to them for food, they immediately pick it up, devour it quickly, and return fearlessly to fetch more. The natives of Kordofan take little pains to destroy this vermin, and merely set snares in the fields and gardens for the field rat, which is eaten by many negroes, and even by some few of the Dongolavi. I myself saw the Nuba negroes eating rats ; they roast them in their skins, and flay them after they are cooked. There is one species of rat, however, which does not create the slightest disgust. It is of a cream-colour, with a snow white belly and feet tipped with white, and its coat is as sleek as silk. They may be classed amongst the most elegant animals.

The fowls of this province are far larger than those of Egypt—the cock birds more especially—and are decorated with a very beautiful plumage, similar to those observed in Nubia. The tame pigeons are likewise larger than those met with in Egypt, and I counted nine different varieties of wood-pigeons, the smallest of the size of a blackbird, but with a tail as long as the bird itself.

The giraffe, one of the most beautiful animals of Africa, is frequently seen in Kordofan, and nearly all the specimens of this animal sent by way of Egypt to Purope and America, have been caught