A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



in pursuit of the crippled animal he had suddenly come face 

 to face with the game. Although badly wounded, the rhino 

 made a blundering charge which Fuguet avoided by leaping 

 behind the trunk of a slender acacia, and as the animal passed 

 he dropped it with a bullet through the shoulder. 



When I looked out through the tent-flap the next morning 

 a steady rain was falling. The surrounding scenery was not 

 made any more cheerful by a number of vultures and marabout 

 storks huddled on the limbs of several dead acacias above the 

 shelter- tents of the porters. Vultures, of which there are 

 several kinds in the country, are not cheerful or inspiring birds 

 at their best. When thoroughly wet through by rain, and with 

 their bald, red heads tucked down between their shoulders, 

 they give a general aspect of gloom and desolation to the whole 

 landscape. A number of solemn and melancholy marabout 

 storks perched on the upper branches of the trees did not add 

 any hilarity to the scenery. 



The long grass in the vicinity of the stream we w^ere camped 

 upon was alive with noisy guinea-fowl, and after breakfast I 

 shot a brace of these with the shot-gun, and, finding the grass 

 too wet for comfort, returned to the shelter of the tent. These 

 guinea-fowl, which were the helmeted species, w^ere very plenti- 

 ful over the whole country, and became a source of great an- 

 noyance by suddenly arising in noisy, cackling flight from 

 the grass, through which the hunter was crawling toward some 

 coveted head. Several kinds of touracos, or plantain eaters, 

 and coucals were also a nuisance, as they fluttered from tree 

 to tree before the stalker, uttering various kinds of metallic, 

 grating cries of warning. Game of all kinds usually paid in- 

 stant attention to the warnings of birds. 



The downpour continued during the entire morning, and, not 

 wishing to travel through the wet grass, we waited until noon 

 before deciding what to do. About noon the sun appeared, 

 and in an incredibly short time dried the grass. It being too 



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