VOYAGE ON WHITE NILE 141 



his opponent is a coward who neglects to use his 

 natural weapons a. rending- beak and clinching talons 

 even in self-defence! 



At first it is only the smaller scavengers that assemble ; 

 but soon the great carrion-feeders begin to arrive on the 

 scene, clearly attracted, or rather, misled, by the gathering 

 of the minor clans. For what use is the carcase of some 



WHITE-HEADED VULTURES. 



small bird to a hungry marabou ? As scraps of meat are 

 thrown ashore, the "site-value" of land adjacent to our 

 anchorage, with its unearned increment, goes up by leaps 

 and bounds. The smaller vultures (brown neophrons) lie 

 dotted all over the grass, and beyond stands a solemn 

 company of marabou, disconsolate at their misreading of 

 the signs. One, more eager to investigate, perches with 

 laboured wing-balancing on the apex of a heglig-tree 

 already occupied, inter a/zos, by a pair of imposing white- 

 headed vultures. The latter allowed so close an approach 

 that, after making the annexed sketch, I "felled" the 

 bigger of the two with No. 8 shot weight, 8 lb., 

 expanse, 84 inches. 



