-> Stalking Expeditions in the Xyika 



have devoured the whole, while the wind carries over 

 to us the noise ot their scoldings and hissings. Those 

 which are sated run aside with short, hopping steps, and 

 then rise in the air, to seek, with heavy flight and well-filled 

 crops, the neighbouring trees, there to give themselves 

 up quietly to the business of digestion. 



The short rest came- just at the right time for us ; after 

 about a quarter ot an hour 1 set torth again into the desert. 

 Xow there stretches be-fore us a long and arid plain, whose 

 surface; appears to be undermined and hollowed every- 

 where. Over our heads there hovers a pair of the beautiful 

 juggling-eagles (Helotarsns ecctndcthts}, the most wonderful 

 fliers I know. 



Near the poverty-stricken bushes and shrubs there 

 peep out here and there the marmot-like ground-squirrels, 

 long-tailed, slender, and nimble, resembling in their 

 colouring the reddish desert-ground. Raising themselves 

 on their hind-legs, they look round at us anxiously, then 

 disappear in the deep undergrowth. 



It is by no means easy to bag these animals, although 

 they are far Irom rare, and in some places are extraordinarily 

 numerous. Many kinds prefer to inhabit deserted white-ant 

 hills. When once they have withdrawn into this chosen 

 fortress ol theirs, you have to wait a long time belore 

 you see them again. Only when the wind favours you 

 is there any chance ot getting a shot at them. Often 

 they ptit only their heads out of their refuge, keeping 

 them there quite a long time, on the look-out. It shot 

 at thus the wounded animal disappears entirely into the 



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