PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 69 



snap if suddenly started into a quick run. My man, 

 Donovan, who accompanied me to the Transvaal, and, 

 imbibing the zoological furore, assiduously spent his 

 Sundays in shooting birds, procured me a very fine 

 specimen of the species. By a long shot he broke its 

 wing, when it made off at a terrific pace across the veld, 

 followed by a spider and pair of horses as hard as they 

 could go. Eventually it was come up with, and on the 

 Kafir boy endeavouring to secure it, the bird showed 

 fight, beat him off, and again started running across the 

 uneven ground. My man now outspanned one of the 

 horses and on its back galloped after the creature, which 

 had obtained a long start. For more than three miles 

 did this chase continue over the veld interspersed with 

 ant-hills, and eventually it required the contents of two 

 more barrels (buck-shot) to stop and secure it. This fact 

 effectually disposes of its reported incapacity for violent 

 running, as the hunt was over a long stretch of country 

 of the most uneven surface. The crop of this bird was 

 full of the remains of orthopterous insects *. 



But the bird of the open treeless veld is the Vulture 

 ( Gyps Jcollii}, and in places like the outskirts of Pretoria, 

 where dead oxen and horses in some seasons plentifully 

 strew the plain, these birds act the part of a sanitary 

 board. A specimen I obtained weighed in the flesh 

 32 Ibs., and as it was a full-grown example and a large 

 bird, I think this may be accepted as the maximum 

 weight. On days when none are apparently to be seen, 

 if one carefully looks upwards towards the clear sky and 

 scans the expanse, the diminished form of one of these 

 huge griffons is sure to be made out, as from its lofty 

 vantage it surveys a large tract of country. Should a bird 

 be seen to alight, it is not long before others arrive from 

 all sides and hover about the spot. There can be little 

 doubt that high in the air these sentinels are always on 



* Dr. Sclater informs me, however, that the legs o f specimens confined in 

 the Gardens of the Zoological Society are very brittle and liable to accident. 

 The range of this bird is somewhat restricted. Emin Pasha did not meet 

 with it on the East-African steppes, though he believed it existed there 

 (< Einin Pasha in Central Africa/ p. 402). 



