FISHING EAGLE. 229 



At St. Jago the Bird of Pharoah (Percnopteris leuco- 

 cephalus) not only consumes offal and excrement, but 

 preys on lizards and locusts, eternally hovering about 

 in a vile ignoble way, after the manner of the Carrion- 

 Crows. Its flight is very heavy, nor does it ever soar 

 like the Eagle or the Kite. It performs the part of an 

 useful scavenger in a country where putrefaction is so 

 rapid. The natives of the Cape de Verds, however, do 

 not appear to hold it in the same veneration and respect 

 as we are told the Egyptians did of yore. Another great 

 destroyer of the innumerable Grylli that swarm here is 

 the pretty Dacelo lagoensis, a species of Kingfisher, a 

 very pretty slim species of Sylvia) and a small Hawk, 

 very much resembling in plumage the Sparrow-Hawk. 



The Eishing Eagle of Africa (Haliecetm vocifer] may 

 occasionally be seen hovering about these islands. Elastic 

 and buoyant, this agile dweller in the air mounts to 

 soaring heights, scanning, with sharp and piercing eye, 

 the motions of his prey below. Energetic in his move- 

 ments, impetuous in his appetites, he pounces with the 

 velocity of a meteor on the object of his wishes, and, 

 with a wild and savage joy, tears it to pieces. His whole 

 sense of existence is the procuring of food, and for this 

 he is ever on the alert, ever ready to combat, to ravage, 

 and destroy. 



Numbers of a small, black, land Salamander are found 

 concealed under the stones among the sand, and huge 

 Locusts swarm by myriads. 



The Tarentola Delalandii, a singular grey-coloured 

 Gecko, is common on Quail Island, near the anchorage 



