Vultures and their Habits 155 



them away. Although rather late, we hide ourselves, 

 and several hours slip by in the deepest silence, much 

 to the disgust of the vultures which still remain wait- 

 ing on the trees. So much the worse for them ! They 

 will be there at their own expense, for, intending to 

 watch at night, I cover the buffalo with foliage, and 

 build a shelter stronger than that of the plain at the 

 foot of a tree. But, as I have said, the lions do not 

 return, and we leave the vultures free to dispose of 

 their find. 



This species of bird plays a very important part 1 in 

 the life of the African hunter, because they tell him 

 by soaring in the air where are to be found the 

 animals which he has sometimes wounded and lost. 

 They are everywhere without your seeing them, and no 

 sooner does an animal fall than a vulture immediately 

 flies through the air as though by chance, ever ready 

 as they are to devour your game, if you leave it with- 

 out hiding it under a heap of leaves or grass. In the 

 case of an elephant nothing is to be feared, their 

 beaks cannot penetrate its skin. Nor can they pene- 

 trate that of the large antelopes ; but they go about 

 their business in a different way then, attacking the 

 anus and the soft parts of the abdomen, where the 

 skin is tender, and making an opening through which 

 they drag the intestines. When these are eaten they 

 enter the cavity, and devour all the flesh of the ribs 

 inside, sometimes seven or eight of them getting in- 

 side the body for that purpose, while the others eat 

 the eyes, tongue, etc. So it happens that when you 



1 See Mes Grandes Chasses, p. 246. 



