108 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 hyenas, 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 hyzena, 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 aérially 
communicated from battalion to battalion among the circling 
brotherhood, and through miles and miles of e-her 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, hyzena, 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 : 
