-^ Stalking Expeditions in the Nyika 



have devoured die whole, while the wind carries over 

 to us the noise of their scoldings and hissings. Those 

 which are sated run aside with short, hopping steps, and 

 then rise in the air, to seek, with heavy flight and well-filled 

 crops, the neighbouring trees, there to give themselves 

 up quietly to the business of digestion. 



The short rest came just at the right time for us ; after 

 about a quarter of an hour I set forth again into the desert. 

 Now there stretches before us a long and arid plain, whose 

 surface appears to be undermined and hollowed every- 

 where. Over our heads there hovers a pair of the beautiful 

 juggling-eagles [Hclotarsus eccxudafus). the most wonderful 

 fliers I know. 



Near the poverty-stricken bushes and shrubs there 

 peep out here and there the marmot-like ground-squirrels, 

 lono--tailed, slender, and nimble, resemblinof in their 

 colourinof the reddish desert-Q^round. Raisinof themselves 

 on their hind-legs, they look round at us anxiously, then 

 disappear in the deep undergrowth. 



It is by no means easy to bag these animals, although 

 they are far from rare, and in some places are extraordinarily 

 numerous. Many kinds prefer to inhabit deserted white-ant 

 hills. When once they have withdrawn into this chosen 

 fortress of theirs, you have to wait a long time before 

 you see them again. Only when the wind favours you 

 is there any chance of getting a shot at them. Often 

 they put only their heads out of their refuge, keeping 

 them there quite a long time, on the look-out. If shot 

 at thus the wounded animal disappears entirely into the 



577 



