i 82 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XV 
to appropriate a roasted fowl or joint during its transfer 
from the kitchen to the dining-room. On one occasion 
whilst I was lunching out of doors near Jeypore, a 
predaceous kite swooped over the table and flew away 
with the roasted fowl, the only substantial element ^ 
in the meal. 
English visitors in eastern lands usually take much ^ 
interest in kites. Four or five hundred years ago these r. 
birds were nearly as common in London as they are 
to-day in Cairo. One writer of that period (Turner) i 
states that they were so rapacious as to snatch meat j 
from the hands of children in our towns and cities. | 
The toy known as the kite takes its name from these birds. I 
There is a Masai proverb which runs, “ Do not show t 
the hawk your bow or he will fly away.” A beautiful | 
hawk sat on a dead branch high in the tree watching | 
our party proceeding to the lake. AVe stayed beneath f 
the tree and it was decided to obtain the hawk for a I 
specimen. The instant the gun was handed to me by I 
the gun-bearer the bird flew away. This happened on t 
several occasions and I am sure hawks are as knowincr 1 
o y 
as rooks in regard to guns. i 
It is the practice of many settlers on the high grass f 
plateaus around the Kikuyu and the Mau escarpments, t 
as well as in the Rift Valley, to fire the long dry grass, v. 
This method destroys young trees as well as ticks ; such ;; 
grass-fires sometimes get out of hand and destroy out- 
buildings as well as settlers’ houses. On two occasions ' 
we were afraid that the fire would involve our camp in J 
destruction. AVhen the coarse dry grass is burnt off ? 
just before the rain is due, in a short time young green / 
grass makes its appearance and is visited by zebras, ; 
antelopes, and similar animals. .* 
As soon as the grass is burnt, the blackened area < 
left by the fire is visited by large birds such as hawks, 
kites, secretary birds, and bustards : they hunt for little 
birds, grasshoppers, locusts, and other winged insects c 
which, being singed by the fire, are unable to fly. 
