io8 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



before them for thirty miles to their kraal, and had killed many 

 giraffes and other game from his back, one or two of the tribe 

 who had gone into the colony for work having learnt to ride. 



Round the dead elands there was a typical African breakfast 

 party two lions, a dozen jackals, five or six hyaenas, and an 

 innumerable company of vultures. The lions, having fed to 

 the full, were lying down close to the carcase, the jackals 

 intently watching them, one of their party every now and then, 

 when he thought the lions' eyes were turned upon his com- 

 panions or partly closed, running in for a hasty mouthful till a 

 growl sent him to his seat again. A shambling hyaena, after 

 many tries, for the beast wants dash, gets hold of one of the 

 outside strings of the entrails and, pulling it taut, backs as 

 far as he possibly can. Two or three of his friends invite 

 themselves, and, rushing into breakfast, tug different ways. 

 Vultures of various kinds stalk about tearing with beak and 

 claw, and good right have they, for the invitations to the feast 

 have all come through them. High up in the blue, entirely 

 beyond your ken, they saw the game killed, and before you 

 left the spot, if you had looked up, you might have seen the 

 air alive with them. Soaring very high for an extensive view 

 of anything going on for their advantage upon the earth below, 

 their keen sight has comprehended the situation at a glance. 

 Those immediately over the spot begin to descend, the 

 message of there being something ' down ' has been aerially 

 communicated from battalion to battalion among the circling 

 brotherhood, and through miles and miles of eiher a game of 

 follow my leader is going on. It is sight, not scent. An 

 animal killed in a nullah, or in thick bush and covered up at 

 once, escapes. The jackal, hyaena, and lion follow the birds. 

 When the beasts of prey do not find the carcase it may have 

 been shot far from water and the animal is thick-skinned, 

 like the rhinoceros and elephant, and even the giraffe and 

 buffalo, the beaks and claws cannot for some time make an 

 entrance into their larder supply, and the birds sit about in 

 solemn funereal state on the surrounding trees waiting for the 



