With Flashlieht and Rifle ^ 



tlu-rc whizzes oblic|ucly a dark-wingcel object that settles 

 on the; remains of the _nnii. It is only when at a little 

 distance from the n'rountl that the vulture spreads out 

 his winL;s, at the same time stretching- forth his talons, 

 thus mitigating the force ot his tall. Greedily, with un- 

 o-ainly hops, he hurries to\\ards the remnants ot my booty. 

 From different directions he is tollowed by others and again 

 others of his kindred. Marabous let themselves down to 

 the vultures without a movement ot the wings, like para- 

 chutes, their long legs stuck quaintly torward. But they 

 never bv any chance land upon the carcase ; they reach 

 the ground at some distance from it. Wilture upon vulture 

 now comes whizzing down : the little carrion- vulture 

 {N'cophi'ou niouachus), picking out scattered morsels with 

 its weak bill and pulling timidly at the larger t>agments ; 

 the stately Rii|)peirs vulture, in its simple, sand-coloured 

 ])lumage ; the gaily coloured hooded vulture {Lophogyps 

 occipitalis) ; the greydieaded vulture, my own discovery 

 {Psetidogyps africanus scJiil/iiigsi), and the "sociable" 

 vulture {Otogxps aiiricn/aris), the largest and most im- 

 posing of all its tribe, whose occurrence in German East 

 Africa I was the first to establish. 



With incredible rapidity the assembled birds gobble 

 down the fragments. Into the midst of their quarrelling 

 and the flapping of their wings the smaller birds tumble 

 cleverly down ; they catch up the morsels ot flesh that 

 are flving about in the tumult, tear them asunder in the 

 air with their claws, and swallow them. In the same 

 wriv the preying storks ensure themselves their share of 

 the booty. In an incredibly short time the troop of birds 



574 



