34 



THE OSPREY 



be fully appreciated. 1 have been fairh- startled at uttering. It \v?i,s the first songster I had e\er met 

 times where a number of the birds alighted near me among the A'ly/'iii, s, and it seemed a curious accom- 

 unperceived, and suddenly began all together their plishment for one of its race to possess. I listened to 

 anvil chorus It would burst out without warning him for a time, and then brought him away with me. 

 with a long, rolling intonation impossible to describe His scientific name is M,-Iii')nx f^olioptcrits. 

 by letters, as if an arm\- was advancing, armed with \'ultures were very common and with the hyenas 



possessed a spe- 

 cial CO n t r a c t 

 for cleaning 

 the land of 

 garbage and 

 unclean ma te- 

 rial generally. 

 There were 

 m a n s species, 

 perhaps the 

 most common 

 being the so- 

 called Egyptian 

 X'ulture, Neo- 

 pliro)! pcrciiop- 

 /(■riis, a pure 

 white bird, 

 when adult, 

 with black 

 staves which were clattered together, and again it wings. Numbers of these kept continually about our 

 sounded like the metallic ring of a watchman's rattle, camp, and it was a most beautiful sight to witness a 

 I never could accustom myself to believe that these dozen or more of them soaring in the sk}- in the heat 

 uproarious sounds came from a bird's throat, and of the day, their white plumage tinted by the sun's 

 watched them as they flew gracefully by with the re- rays with the faint blush of the rose in startling con- 

 spect that seemed to be their due, as being possessed trast with the jet black wings. 



of attributes rather more potential than was exactly Another splendid vulture, if such a term can be 



right or proper. The name by which this bird is applied to these unclean though useful birds, was the 

 known to naturalists is Rhincpomastus muior. and it /,„^/,„,,.,,/,,, ,,,,1 pita lis as it appears in science. It 



could carry it easily if twice as long. ■ u* u n j ^u inru-» u j j \7 u 4^1 



■> ■' ^ might be called the White-headed Vulture, as the 



Birds of prev were very numerous, and as I ha\e j u u ^u \. a ^\,- \^ j 1 



'^ - -' adults have the head, thighs and lower parts pure 



IK-HEADEn VULTURES, PHOTOr,RAPH IN S( ).M ,\1.1 1.A M i. 



AFRICA. 





already said, wonderfully tame. Hawks and eagles 

 never thought of leaving their perches as we rode by, 

 but gazed unconcernedly at us, even if our path led 

 us immediately beneath them. .Among the eagles 

 especially noticeable was the 'Bateleur,' [Hr/oiarsns 

 ecdtidatiis.) with rich orange bill and legs, black 

 plumage and red back. The head is crested, and 

 large, but the tail is so short that he appears, espe- 

 cially when flying, as if he had none at all, and looks 

 not unlike a great bat as it soars overhead at a vast 

 height. At such times the wings are rarely flapped, 

 and the under side being white, they seem almost 

 transparent as the sun shines upon them, aftording a 

 strong contrast to the black body. I consider it alto- 



white, in striking contrast to the dark lirown and 

 black of the rest of the plumage. It is an enormous 

 bird upon the wing, the spread being nearl)- twice that 

 of the Egyptian Vulture, and as it floated majestically 

 through the sky its movements were the poetry of 

 motion. Two views exhibit these great birds fairly 

 well. The one with two vultures just springing into 

 the air from the branches of a dead thorn tree was 

 taken at Adadleh. south of the Golis Kange. Egyptian 

 and White-headed N'ultures can be seen upon the 

 the ground. The other shows two of the large vul- 

 tures in the trees with several of their satellites, the 

 crows, below them, This view was taken on the Haud, 

 a waterless tract about one hundred miles wide and 



gether the finest eagle in Somaliland. 



Africa possesses many wonderful creatures, and several hundred long. 



perhaps it was not surprising to find among the rapa- "f cour.se as we penetrated into the interior of the 



cious birds a hawk that could sing. This anomalous '^'nd we saw Ostriches in various sized flocks, but 



feathered being was seen occasionally. The first time these great birds were too wary to permit us to get 



my attention was called to it, it warbled a low song near enough to use the camera. But sometimes the 



on the limb of a dead tree close to the path we were natives have some partly tamed birds, which being 



traveling. Its voice was musical, and the performer hobbled cannot stray far from the villages. We met 



seemed quite to enjoy the harmonious sounds he was three such birds on our route one day, and the ac- 



