IN THE FOREST 



the rifle, although in the Transvaal mail-coaches are 

 drawn by zebras. 



The frequency of my visits to Gorongoza has brought 

 me a company, with whose presence I could well 

 dispense, namely the birds-of-prey. So soon as I 

 have killed an animal the kites arrive. Immediately 

 after them the sky is dotted with specks which grow 

 larger to the view, and with a harsh whizzing hundreds 

 of vultures of two species let themselves fall from a 

 vast height and cover the trees. After the vultures 

 appear the marabouts, a species of stork of gigantic 

 size, with a grey-blue back, a white belly, a naked 

 head, and a yellow, pointed beak. This bird carries 

 beneath its tail the most lovely white plumes, much 

 esteemed by the fashionable, although less beautiful 

 than those of the grey marabout of India. 



This stork is only occasionally carnivorous. Gen- 

 erally feeding on fishes, frogs, and migratory locusts, 

 the marabouts do not disdain carrion j but as their 

 beaks, badly formed for tearing flesh, do not permit 

 them to satisfy their tastes, they watch the vultures, 

 marching behind them with a solemn air, and snatching 

 with strokes of their beaks, morsels which the latter 

 have torn off. They live and breed in colonies, gen- 

 erally building on the baobab trees a nest made of twigs 

 of wood. They are mistrustful, and as they have 

 learnt the distance at which one can hit them, I 

 recommend the use of a small rifle and of double 

 zero shot in smooth-bores. 



(59) 



