324 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 



exhausted caravan, or the weary camel "ship of the 

 desert" is seen to stoop its mast-like neck, and the glassy 

 hue of death sufiuses its gentle eye, not from the turbulence, 

 but the want of waves. And if, as has been supposed, 

 some of the great African rivers empty their translucent 

 streams into an interior and sea-like lake, many an un- 

 known but beautiful aquatic bird must haunt its mysterious 

 and long-sought-for shores, and revel in the crystal depths 

 of those delusive waters which have already led on to death 

 so many of our brave and devoted countrymen. To these, 

 however, so long as heroic enterprise is valued, they will 

 likewise prove the waters of immortality, though, to their 

 surviving and deploring friends, bitter as the fountain of 

 Marah.* 



If the multiplicity of species, even in the class of quad- 

 rupeds, be found an insuperable obstacle to a detailed ac- 

 count in such a publication as the present, far more must 

 we curtail our remarks when treating of the feathered race, 

 the number of which, not unfamiliar to the ornithologist, 

 does probably not fall far short of 6000 species. Let us 

 commence with the carnivorous tribes. 



Several species of vulture occur in Africa, where, as in 

 other countries, they follow troops of armed men, 



" Sagacious of their quarry from afar," 



in the hope of ere long preying on their slaughtered bodies. 

 It is, however, by the sense of sight, and not by that of 

 smell, that these birds so quickly discover and assemble 

 round their victims on the battle-field. 



The eared vulture {Poricou of Le Vaillant) is a gregarious 

 species which inhabits the southern parts of Africa. Their 

 nests are placed very near each other, and the birds are seen 

 sittmg in vast numbers about the caverns of the rocky moun- 

 tains where they breed. 



A doubtful species called the armed vulture, is mentioned 



* The wTiter of these notices dwelt at one time, during his boyhood. 

 Tor many months in the family, and constant companionship of the lata 

 lamented Major Laing, and was in habits either of personal intimacy or 

 correspondence with the unfortunate Bowdich, Gudney, Clapperton, anJ 

 the younger Park, who so lately perished following his father's footslep* 



