Birds of Gamhia. 
151 
also, like other Storks, eat reptiles, frogs, fish, insects, and other 
creeping' Ihingft from the swamps and water-side, in fact they .-ieem 
almost omnivorous, to judge from what captive "birds will put away. 
Locusts, "these birds are specially fond of, and it is a great sight 
watching a number of these clumsy Storks pursuing" a swarm Hying 
thi'ough the bush. The Marabouts follow on foot or on the wing, as 
oicasio.i demauds, snapping the insects up in hundreds from Ihe 
ground, oi' pursuing them into the air and settling on the swaying 
lops of the. bushes to jnck them oil" the twigs, all the time nalancing 
Iheniselves with their wings as well as they can on their insecure 
perches. But the meal they 'best appreciate is a dead beast. When 
a cow dies the first arrival is just as likely to be a MaraOout as 
a Vulture, for their eye-sight for carrion is quite as keen as that 
of lliu latter bird and like them they ai-e very frequently to be 
seen soaring high in the air on the look out for food, wlieeling 
slowly round and round on motionless wings and often mounting 
by lai-ge circles until they are mere specks in the heavens. A 
Maiabout, too, will tackle and devour quite a large snake, nut not 
till he has thoix)uglily knocked it about and pecked it air over. Then 
having made sure it is quite dead, he will bolt it in a few gulps 
and down it goes whole. A peculiar habit these birds have is to 
assemble on the ground in large numbers for no apparent reason 
at all, unless it is, as the natives firmly believe, for the j)urpos& 
of " holding court," and trying one of their number. This is not 
a commoi^ performance, or at any rate is but rarely seen, but 
Captain Stanley, the Commissioner of the Upper River Province, 
once when, riding across a large dry swamp came upon an enormous 
Ilock holding conclave on a bare tract in the middle ofi this. 
Hundreds of tiiem were collected in one spot, who let him rid© 
right into their midst, and would scarcely trouble to get out of his 
way, merely hopping- or walkin/g to one side when almost touched 
and then at once returning to their places. He tried to make 
them rise by riding at them and cracking his whip, but they merely 
responded by opening their beaks and flapping their wings at the 
horse, in fact his actions only seemed to excite the birds to greater, 
efforts (to get rid of him. The horse naturally was beginning to 
object also, so that, fearing the animal would sooner or later get 
a peck in the eye. Captain Stanley rode oti" to camp for his camera, 
hoping to be able to get a photo of this most interesting assembly. 
Unfortunately on his return with the camera he found the crowd 
had departed. J once have seen something of the same sort. Vul- 
tures and Marabouts rtund a carcase, which the latter absolutely re- 
fused to leave, almost showing fight with their beaks and wings 
when one tried to drivir them oil, but this was only, no doubt, because 
they were gorged and careless of anything but an overwhelming 
longing for post-prandial rest. In the other case howevei-, there 
w<t3 no carcase or any obvious cause for the gathering. Boldness 
like this is quite a departure from their normal behaviour, for as 
