Keen Sight of Vultures. 131 



One night at Mzazas I sat up for some lions that had 

 been coming round, but, instead of coming to a fat pig I 

 had tied up for them, they spent the night in chewing up 

 some roan reim (thongs made of roan hide) I had stretched 

 along some trees. This was fixed at about eight feet from 

 the ground, and they tore it down with their paws, and 

 then ate a lot of it. 



The bird life in the Luangwa River was most interesting, 

 and the shrill cries of the ospreys were often heard as they 

 perched on some dead tree overhanging the river. The 

 monkeys, too, used to chatter and cry in the early 

 mornings, and late in the afternoons as they came to 

 drink. Many beautiful kingfishers of several varieties 

 jcould be seen, and the glint of their wings in the strong 

 sunlight was like the flash of jewels. Geese, ducks, and 

 waders were numerous, and I noticed many terns of a 

 small species. Green pigeons, parrots, guineafowls, par- 

 tridges, quail, and doves helped to fill the pot at times, 

 and marabout storks, as well as storks and herons of other 

 varieties, were abundant. One very pretty black and 

 white coloured stork is known, I believe, as the saddle bill 

 stork, from the formation of a saddle shaped plate on the 

 posterior part of his peak. 



When game was killed and left in the open the vultures 

 would be the first to see it, and then the marabouts would 

 follow. It is marvellous how the vultures can see meat at 

 such a distance, for when one shoots a beast none may be 

 visible. Then in half an hour one will notice some dark 

 specks away in the blue, and these will get lower and 

 lower in diminishing circles until they develop into these 

 carrion feeders. But if it is properly covered, the vultures 

 fail to see it, as I have proved on many occasions. 



It is useless covering the game and leaving big patches 

 of crimson blood lying near. Sand or earth should be 

 thrown over such marks. My belief is that the vultures do 

 not notice the game as quickly as they do a fair-sized patch 

 of red blood, and it is this that first catches their vision, as 

 they wheel far off in the heavens. When the sun went 



K '2 



