A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 131 



not quite daring to go in and drive the dogs off. 

 After a time the vultures could stand it no longer and 

 half a dozen of them would make a rush in, and the 

 dogs, half afraid of them too, would try their best to 

 keep them off by snapping and jumping at them. Both 

 sides were getting much annoyed with each other ; the 

 black pi dog charged a vulture who was venturing 

 too close, and caught hold of, and held on to, a bunch 

 of its feathers between his teeth, while the vulture 

 seized him with its beak. They had a great tussle, 

 the vulture trying to get away, which eventually it 

 did minus many feathers. When the dogs had 

 eaten their fill they retired to a short distance and 

 the big birds were all round the carcase in a second, 

 tearing and squealing and crowding in on each other, 

 with their large wings half spread out. In about 

 twenty minutes there was not a vestige of meat 

 left, and nothing was to be seen but the backbone 

 and ribs. The leg bones had been torn off and 

 dragged away. The contented vultures sat about 

 on the trees around while a few of the weaker ones, 

 who had not been able to push their way in, still sat 

 and pecked the bones. 



Near our next camp a cow was killed while grazing 

 in the middle of open fields; the owner was sure it 

 was killed by a tiger and wanted me to sit up over 

 it, but there were no convincing teeth-marks in the 

 throat to prove that it was a tiger. However, I 

 arranged to sit up that night in the only tree there 

 was, which was really too far from the kill to be of 

 much use for a night shot. There was a very good 

 moon and after a long wait a hyena came and feasted, 



