OF THE BIRDS OF AFRICA. 1 19 



lar 5 that species of pigeon which I have described under the name 

 of 'Ramron, and which is remarkable, in this respect, forming his 

 ordinary prey. I have seen falcons, gosshawks, sparrow-hawks, and 

 hobbies, all in chace of our pigeons in Europe, but they have seldom 

 succeeded even when they have precipitated themselves into the midst 

 of an entire flock of these. Their methods, however, are very differ- 

 ent from those which the White Gos Eagle so successfully employs. 

 Birds of prey generally seek to overtake their game by their very 

 rapid flight, and endeavour to attack them either from above, or on 

 one side. This eagle, on the contrary, controls himself, measures his 

 flight, and leaves nothing to fortune. The spotted wood pigeon, as 

 I have remarked in giving the description of it, rises above tall trees, 

 and seems to amuse himself with a singular mode of flight peculiar 

 to himself 5 while the pigeon is thus engaged, our eagle darts from 

 his ambuscade, and if he succeeds in getting beneath the pigeon before 

 he can manage to precipitate and conceal himself in the wood, it is all 

 over with him : all his turns and all his rapid doublings will avail 

 him nothing : his enemy meets him at every turn, and seems to wish 

 rather to tire his victim out, than actively to pursue him; always below 

 him, his only care seems to be to prevent him from gaining the trees : 

 the sooner the pigeon throws himself towards them, the sooner is he 

 taken ; for our eagle, traversing the shortest line in the same space of 

 time, is sure to meet him, and his prey thus falls into his power at 

 the very moment he thought to have escaped. It is only when the 

 pigeon is forced to betake himself to the open plain, that our eagle 

 flies straight at him, when he is able to seize him in an instant, in 

 consequence of his being exhausted ; but he very rarely dares to quit 

 the wood, knowing that his only resource is to get into the thickest 

 of the trees, where, in consequence of our eagle not having free 

 scope for action, he may hope to escape. The White Gos Eagle strips 

 the feathers from his prey before he tears it, devouring it while 

 perched upon the under branches of some large tree, upon the trunk 

 of a fallen one, or upon a rock, or other high spot, but never on the 

 ground. 



The White Gos Eagle frequents forests only ; and seems to prefer 

 those places where the largest and fewest trees are found. In one of 

 these, concealed under a branch, he lies in wait for pigeons and wood- 

 partridges, among the latter of which he precipitates himself down- 

 wards with much noise. He also makes prey of a very small species 

 of gazelle, which is only found in forests, and of which I have spoken 

 in my travels under the Hottentot name of nometjes. 



