BIRDS OF PREY 31 



eating a large iguana, and I put another up from the 

 newly killed body of a big puff adder. Their method 

 of attacking snakes is that of other large birds of prey, 

 including the secretary bird : the reptile is held firmly 

 by the talons and torn by the beak, while the wing 

 is used as a shield against the poison fangs. Small 

 carnivora, up to the size of a half-grown serval, are also 

 attacked much in the same way as other mammals of 

 similar size. 



If the animal is too big to seize and carry off summarily, 

 the eagle swoops down, imbeds his talons firmly in its 

 back, flaps his wings in its eyes, and pierces the back of 

 its skull with his beak. I have seen them stoop at 

 both guinea-fowls and francolins on the wing ; but, 

 as a rule, they capture their prey on the ground, 

 watching its movements from the shelter of a neigh- 

 bouring tree, and then pouncing on it with a sudden 

 rush. At Sabi Bridge the fowls suffered severely for a 

 long time from the depredations of two of these birds. 

 They would return again and again at irregular intervals 

 for a fresh victim, and so wary and alert were they that 

 it was for a long time impossible to get a shot at either 

 of them. I have seen one sweep from his ambush 

 among the dense foliage of a fig tree on the other side 

 of the river, three hundred yards away, straight as an 

 arrow upon some unsuspecting fowl, light on the ground 

 close by it, and then capture it with a shuffling run, 

 instantly flying off again to safety, its prey clutched 

 tightly in its talons. 



When brought wounded to the ground the martial 

 eagle fights fiercely for its life, and is extraordinarily 

 quick in striking with its talons, which it uses much as 

 a cat does her claws. I remember bringing one down 

 with a rifle bullet from the top of a pretty high tree. 



