DROUGHT IN WATERBERG, SOUTH AFRICA—MARAIS. 521 
ture next to them in the direct sun and placed a registering ther- 
mometer close against the ball. Unfortunately the scale went to 
60° C. (140° F.) only, and the mercury rose to the top of the tube in 
afew minutes. This terrific sun bath did not seem to injure their 
etiolated bodies at all. In the cool of the evening they trekked 
back to their underground nests. 
The only animals which suffered no perceptible inconvenience al- 
though they also were driven to a change of habits, were Canis pictus—- 
the terrible hunting dog. In the middleveld during ordinary times 
they drive during the day only, mostly in the early morning. But 
now on account of the terrible heat they hunted at night, and we were 
often rudely awakened by the noise of their drives. On one occasion 
a troop drove a full-grown rietbuck ewe right through our camp 
while we were sitting in the light of a big fire, and pulled her down 
in the river-bed within 20 paces of our carts. Oa another occasion 
a troop drove one of our donkey stallions 2 miles before they captured 
and devoured the unfortunate animal. Judging from the threaten- 
ing and fearless attitude of those encountered during the day, I 
have not the least doubt that they would attack a human being if the 
least indication of fear and retreat became apparent to them. We 
once had the pleasure of assisting at the poisoning of a troop that had 
killed a full-grown male ostrich near a neighboring camp, within a 
few hundred yards of the tents. This appeared to be a new prey. 
Several old Waterberg hunters assured me that they had never before 
heard of wild dogs driving an ostrich, and several of them doubted 
the possibility of capturing a full-grown healthy male. 
The white-headed, vociferous seaeagle, which every visitor to 
the East African coast will remember, if only on account of its clear 
triumphant shout high up im the clouds above some estuary, has 
always been a rare visitor to Waterberg during the early summer. 
The late Dr. Gunning thought that they were driven inland by storms 
on the coast. This is a mistake. There can be no doubt that the 
real reason of their travels so far inland is the drying of the streams 
which affords them a plentiful food supply easily attaimed. They 
follow the course of a drying stream as long as there is any chance 
of securing fish. We found a large number of these birds on 
Magalakwen, more than I have ever seen together anywhere. They - 
were apparently caught as in a trap by the drying of the streams 
behind them. No longer were they noble denizens of the clouds, 
clean feeders, stooping from the blue to plunge into the fresh clear 
water—as they are in their native haunts. Here in the middleveld 
they had become simply vultures, quarrelmg over fragments of 
carrion, left by the wild dogs, and picking up putrid crabs and fish 
along the river banks. 
