A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



heap. Discovering that this was a fine specimen of an adult 

 stallion, I started the men at skinning the entire animal. 



As the skinning progressed I had a good opportunity to ob- 

 serve the actions of the vultures, which commenced to appear 

 in the clear, blue sky ten minutes after the report of the rifle. 

 Some writer has stated that it was his opinion that these birds 

 police the entire sky-line of Africa. At any rate, out of the 

 blue heavens first one and then another circling black dot ap- 

 peared, until, three-quarters of an hour later, a circle of dozens 

 of buzzards, marabout storks, and several kinds of vultures 

 were sitting, walking, or hopping about on the plain within a 

 radius of seventy-five yards of the busy Swahilis. In addition 

 to this, the sky above was filled with the huge, circling birds, 

 with others constantly arriving from every direction. We had 

 not travelled one hundred yards from what remained of the 

 zebra when it was covered by a mass of flapping brown wings, 

 and half an hour later nothing would remain but the cleaned 

 bones of the animal. During that night even these would be 

 crunched up and devoured by the powerful jaws of the hyenas, 

 and the next morning the plain would be as bare as before 

 the tragedy. 



I spent the remainder of that day in camp supervising the 

 preparing of skins. Some of the men had discovered a nest 

 full of young green parrots {Genus polocephalus) in a palm near 

 the tents, which they chopped down, and secured these comical- 

 appearing fledglings for the amusement of the camp. They had 

 also captured some of the numerous marabout storks, which 

 stalked about the borders of camp, by baiting them with a 

 piece of meat attached to a long string. When the voracious 

 birds had swallowed the bait they were dragged into camp 

 hand over hand. These solemn-looking storks were staked out 

 among the shelter-tents of the porters, and as far as I could 

 discover the Swahilis let hunger get so much the better of them 

 that they afterward stewed and devoured these unsavory birds. 



202 



