Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX KHARTOUM BIRDS FROM NOTES SUPPLIED BY ME. BUTLER OP ARROWS, similar to the English variety, but brighter and smaller, fly in and out of the houses in the town, and frequently build their nests in the rooms. Yellow Sparrows, with bright canary yellow heads and breasts, frequent the gardens and cultivation in flocks, but do not enter the houses. BuJhuls, rather smaller than a thrush, grey, with black heads, are familiar garden birds; their notes are loud and cheery, if not very musical. Sun Birds, tiny little creatures with curved bills and long tails, flit about the gardens and feed on the flowers. The males are shining metallio rifle-green, with crimson on the breast; the little females are dull greyish yellow. Little Bee-Eaters love to perch on fences or telegraph wires, from which they glide off after passing insects, returning again to their posts. Hoopoes, fawn-coloured, with cinnamon crests, and wings and tail broadly barred with black and white, flutter among the bushes, or walk daintily about, probing the crevices in the sun-cracked ground with their long bills. Senegal Turtle-Doves coo in the trees; Namaqua Doves are abundant in the gardens, beautiful little doves with long tails like parroquets. Fork-tailed brown Kites and black and white Egyptian Vultures soar and wheel overhead, or sit in rows on the sandbanks in the river. Along the river's edge Pied Kingfishers hover above the water like kestrels, or perch on some convenient stone or empty boat. Now and again a V-shaped flock of Grey Cranes, or of Demoiselle Cranes, pass over high in the air, announcing their approach with loud liquid notes. Ruffs, Singed Plovers, Godivits and Sandpipers feed upon the mud at the river's edge. Small grey and white Terns wheel...