101



THE


Avicultubal Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM & CAPTIVITY.


7 hird Series. —Yol. X. — No. 6.— All rights reserved. APRIL, 1919.


VULTURES.


By A. Blayney Percival.


[Reprinted from the ‘Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History


Society.’]


In a real game reserve the sick animals are killed before they

have time to die, for there is little doubt that the scent left by a sick

beast would be at once recognised by such animals as live on the dead

and dying.


\ ultures are possibly the quickest to spot the sick animal, and

alight near to wait for its death, thus acting as guides to the four-

footed scavengers, who all make for the spot where they see the

\ ultures dropping. Taking this into consideration, it can be easily

seen that the only occasions on which disease in game is recognised

is when an epidemic breaks out.


The gathering of the scavengers—“ those who come for the

broken meat ”—is a most wonderful sight.


If an animal dies in the open, it is only a case of minutes

before the first Vulture appears. A few minutes later the air is full

of them, and then the four-footed scavengers begin to appear—the

jackals first, usually in pairs. In an out-of-the-way district, or game

reserve, where the sportsman is rare, they come openly trotting up,

showing little fear; and if the Vultures are not too numerous they


9



