VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 63 
but on my approach he rose from a newly-killed hare, its 
head torn off and body partly eaten—quick work in less 
than five minutes? The eagle was Aquila raftax. 
Presently Abdul knocked on the head a crouching 
guinea-fowl close by, and the whole pack, we then found, 
lay terror-stricken in the deep grass. A curious incident 
occurred with another eagle. Willoughby Lowe had 
shot one of the little black sparrow-hawks (.Melierax 
gabar) when a white-headed eagle swept down from 
behind, clutched the dead hawk and carried it off in 
triumph! On one occasion, Butler saw a pair of tawny 
eagles attack a big cane-rat ( Thryonomys , a rare beast) 
not ioo yards away. Within brief seconds B. was at the 
spot, but the rat was already so mutilated as to be beyond 
patching up as a specimen. 
Egrets and Heron—W hite Nile. 
