VOYAGE ON WHITE NILE 
141 
his opponent is a coward who neglects to use his 
natural weapons —a rending beak and clinching talons 
—even in self-defence! 
At first it is only the smaller scavengers that assemble ; 
but soon the great carrion-feeders begin to arrive on the 
scene, clearly attracted, or rather, misled, by the gathering 
of the minor clans. For what use is the carcase of some 
White-headed Vultures. 
small bird to a hungry marabou ? As scraps of meat are 
thrown ashore, the “site-value” of land adjacent to our 
anchorage, with its unearned increment, goes up by leaps 
and bounds. The smaller vultures (brown neophrons) lie 
dotted all over the grass, and beyond stands a solemn 
company of marabou, disconsolate at their misreading of 
the signs. One, more eager to investigate, perches with 
laboured wing-balancing on the apex of a heglig-tree 
already occupied, inter alios , by a pair of imposing white- 
headed vultures. The latter allowed so close an approach 
that, after making the annexed sketch, I “felled” the 
bigger of the two with No. 8 shot — weight, 8J lb., 
expanse, 84 inches. 
