616 Colonel S. R. Clarke on [Ibis, 



na)naquus, of which we shot one specimen. There were a 

 good many Vultures about our camps, and their numbers 

 increased as we approached the Kafue. 



My son killed a lioness one evenintf not far from our 

 tents, and had her gralloched, intending to have her 

 carried into camp to be skinned by the fire ; she proved 

 to be too heavy to carry, so she was skinned where she 

 fell ; that night two lions, probably looking for her, roared 

 rountl camp till just before daylight. The next morning 

 we lode out in different directions, but though out for 

 four hours not a head of game could we see ; we concluded 

 the noise made by the lions had shifted the bucks. On 

 my way back to camp I thought that I would visit the 

 carcase of the lioness to see if anything had been to it ; both 

 the carcase and the gralloch lay untouched, and in the grass 

 around them and perched on trees above were some forty 

 vultures, apparently Pscudogyps africamis. 1 offer no com- 

 ment as to whether vultures recognize lion's flesh, but I am 

 sure that if the body (to say nothing of the entrails) had 

 been that of a fair-sized buck, the party I saw would have 

 started to eat it at once, and that all would have been finished 

 in twent}^ minutes. Before this epis)de I had seen three 

 carcases of lions left untouched by vultures though they had 

 been killed two or three days previously, but at that time in 

 that country (the Loietai [dains, B. E. A.) vultures were not 

 so plentiful as they were on the Kafue, and the herds of buck 

 were far more numerous. 



Besides the Fishino- Eagles the Bateleur was common, 

 and a specimen or two with a|)parently a light grt-y back 

 were seen but not obtained. Two or three times eagles were 

 seen to strike at birds : I saw, I believe, a (Jircaetus make a 

 stoop at a Pternistes standing on a bare patch of ground ; the 

 latter escaped by springing into the air at the last moment. 

 I have seen Ptarmigan in Scotland evade the Golden Eagle 

 in the same way. A Darter attacked by a Fishing Kagle 

 tumbled headlong into the water ; and a Marsh-Owl {Asio 

 cdpen.ns) that I had marked down and was dismounting to 

 shoot was swooped at by a small darl< eagle — the owl mounted 



