MY SOMALI BOOK 



25 



fourteen to fifteen hands at the shoulder, his mag- 



nilicent spiral horns set on a graceful frame, the 



Greater Kudu is King among 



the antelopes : none of the other 



great African species, whether 



Eland or Sable, Gemsbok or 



Waterbuck, is quite his peer. 



Next dajj after another un- 

 successful morning in the lesser 

 kudu jungle, news came in about 

 3 p.m. of a goat having been 

 killed by a leopard a couple of 

 hours before on a hill-side three 

 miles away. I hurried off to the 

 spot and found that a shelter of 

 branches had been constructed 

 for me against the side of a rock, 

 and the kill disposed twenty yards below on the hill- 

 side. The chances were that the leopard would return 

 before dark if he came at all. I was well concealed, 

 and the arrangements were all very nice, but I did not 

 like the kill having been moved, as had been done, 

 some forty yards from where the leopard had left it. 

 The skin also had been removed by the owner of the 

 goat before my men arrived on the scene. These may 

 or may not have been the reasons why, but the leopard 

 failed to put in an appearance. However, I spent an 

 interesting afternoon watching the scavengers who 

 soon found out the kill. First, of course, came the 

 crows — a crow like a small raven, but with a dark 

 brown head. Then vultures of no less than six different 

 species, the two who ruled the roost being a big bird 



