164 THE EASTERN HUNTERS. 



So careful was Hawkes in collecting every scrap of 

 fat, that but little was left to anoint the strips and 

 lumps of riven flesh over which a flock of vultures 

 were shortly screaming and fighting and flapping 

 their broad wings. They appeared directly after the 

 carcase was removed to a distance from the camp, 

 and were soon engaged in banqueting noisily over 

 it. Kites, too, assisted at the revels, and added to 

 the noise with their shrill cries. A pair or two of 

 ravens also, and a number of crows strutted about 

 close at hand, not daring to compete with the more 

 powerful birds in their struggle for food, but 

 making up for their lack of strength by their 

 audacity and quickness. Hovering continually 

 around, by occasional little rapid dashes, one w r ould 

 manage frequently to seize a piece of flesh and escape 

 with it, followed by numbers of his own kind. 

 Long ere nightfall, many of the vultures were sitting 

 gorged and in lazy contemplation on the neigh- 

 bouring trees. The bones of the bear were scattered 

 about, but on them was not left enough to afford a 

 meal to one of the hungry troop of jackalls, who at 

 dusk came howling round the place in expectation 

 of supper. 



Day had, on this occasion, given the advantage 

 to the feathered race. Whence the vultures had 

 come, or whither they went after digesting their 



