CH. XIV] FIELD NATURALISTS 407 



standing where we liad left them in the morning, with 

 the white cow lierons flying and walking around and 

 over them. Heller and Cuninghame at once went out 

 to camp by the skin and take care of it, and to bring 

 back the skeleton. We had been out about eleven 

 hours without food ; we were very dirty from the ashes 

 on the burnt ground ; we had triumphed ; and we were 

 tlioroughly happy as we took our baths and ate our 

 hearty dinner. 



It was anuisincp to look at our three naturalists and 

 compare them with the conventional pictures of men of 

 science and learning — especially men of science and 

 learning in the wilderness — drawn by the nov^elists a 

 century ago. Nowadays the field naturalist — who is 

 usually at all points superior to the mere closet 

 naturalist — follows a profession as full of hazard and 

 interest as that of the explorer or of the big-game 

 hunter in the remote wilderness. He penetrates to all 

 the out-of-the-way nooks and corners of the earth ; he 

 is schooled to the performance of \'ery hard work, to 

 the endurance of fatigue and hardship, to encountering 

 all kinds of risks, and to grappling with every concei^-able 

 emergency. In consequence he is exceedingly competent, 

 resourceful, and self-reliant, and tlie man of all others to 

 trust in a tight place. 



Around this camp there were no ravens or crows ; 

 but nniltitudes of kites, almost as tame as sparrows, 

 circled among the tents, uttering their wailing cries, 

 and lit on the little trees near by or waddled about on 

 the ground near the cook tires. Numerous vultures, 

 many marabou storks, and a single fish eagle, came to 

 the carcasses set for them outside the camp by Loring : 

 and he took pictures of them. The handsome fish eagle 

 looked altogether out of place among the foul carrion- 



