THE RED SEA HILLS 369 



on a sloping table-rock across the gully, only their 

 ghoulish heads and necks in sight. 



We shot a pair of the big tawny vultures, and, as 

 their skins are now in the British Museum, their specific 

 identity ought to be determined, though that is .not 

 consequential. 1 Their dimensions were : 



Weight. Expanse. 



Male . . . 16^ Ib. 98 inches 



Female . . .18,, 102 



We had not the luck to secure, here or elsewhere, 

 a specimen of the big black vulture, above described. 

 Possibly they may be the young, or a colour-phase of 

 the Nubian. 



Two curious incidents attended our efforts to secure a 

 few specimens of the isabelline gazelle. I had shot that 

 one female ; but a couple of good bucks remained wanting. 

 As already mentioned, we found these little creatures not 

 only scarce, but wild beyond all words. Again and again 

 they mocked most careful endeavour. One morning we 

 had followed a party of four over many a mile of stony 

 hills and flats never within a quarter-mile when they 

 drew up not far from a troop of ariel. The latter we no 

 longer needed ; but it soon became obvious that their 

 proximity served in some subtle way to allay the extreme 

 suspicion of their smaller cousins. The latter actually 

 allowed us to cross a shallow dip in full view. Then a 

 crawl across cruel rocks, sharp-edged as broken glass, 

 brought me within range (in parenthesis, I may mention 

 that years before I had entered a resolution in my hunting- 

 diary : " Never again crawl for gazelle, they're not worth 

 the labour." Here, however, it was a case of " No crawl, 

 no gazelle.") 



Again I could distinguish no sign of sex, and it was 

 by pure luck that I selected a male for my mark and a 

 small mark a gazelle offers at 200 yards! The bullet, 



1 1 understand that these vultures have been identified with an Indian 

 race, Gyps fulvescens. Such solution scarcely seems likely ? 



2 A 



