A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



meat. We imagine the animal must have got into 

 the thick bush that skirts the Shire river and there 

 died. 



A did not reach our new camp until 3 p.m., 



somewhat exhausted, as the heat was very great. 



One of his machilla boys captured a young 

 golden eagle for me ; the bird had a callow beak, 

 but could not fly, and squawked a good deal. I fed 

 him on bits of raw meat, and he soon became quite 

 tame and allowed me to stroke his head. He was 

 most intelligent, and took the deepest interest in 

 watching other large birds flying overhead ; and the 

 intense way he had of looking at me was most 

 attractive. I would not allow his wings to be cut, 

 as it would have prevented my liberating him later 

 on if I wished to do so, so he was always tethered 

 by a long strap fastened to one of his legs. At 

 night he roosted on the highest branch he could 

 reach. 



My machilla boys brought me some furry rats 

 (tatera nyarwe) that they had killed in a burrow 

 near by; they were pretty little creatures, different 

 from any I had ever seen, and I had them carefully 

 skinned and labelled for the Natural History 

 Museum. 



As I offered a trifling reward, the men would 

 often bring me small animals. At first they brought 

 them alive; but disliking the necessity of ordering 

 their destruction, I gave instructions that only dead 

 ones were to be shown me ; thus later I unfor- 

 tunately lost a lemur which was captured quite 

 young, and would have made a charming pet. 



48 



