THE RED SEA HILLS 
369 
on a sloping table-rock across the gully, only their 
ghoulish heads and necks in sight. 
We shot a pair of the big tawny vultures, and, as 
their skins are now in the British Museum, their specific 
identity ought to be determined, though that is not 
consequential. 1 Their dimensions were :— 
Weight. Expanse. 
Male . . 16^ lb. 98 inches 
Female . . 18 „ 102 „ 
We had not the luck to secure, here or elsewhere, 
a specimen of the big black vulture, above described. 
Possibly they may be the young, or a colour-phase of 
the Nubian. 
Two curious incidents attended our efforts to secure a 
few specimens of the isabelline gazelle. I had shot that 
one female ; but a couple of good bucks remained wanting. 
As already mentioned, we found these little creatures not 
only scarce, but wild beyond all words. Again and again 
they mocked most careful endeavour. One morning we 
had followed a party of four over many a mile of stony 
hills and flats—never within a quarter-mile—when they 
drew up not far from a troop of ariel. The latter we no 
longer needed; but it soon became obvious that their 
proximity served in some subtle way to allay the extreme 
suspicion of their smaller cousins. The latter actually 
allowed us to cross a shallow dip in full view. Then a 
crawl across cruel rocks, sharp-edged as broken glass, 
brought me within range—(in parenthesis, I may mention 
that years before I had entered a resolution in my hunting- 
diary :—“ Never again crawl for gazelle, they’re not worth 
the labour.” Here, however, it was a case of “ No crawl, 
no gazelle.”) 
Again I could distinguish no sign of sex, and it was 
by pure luck that I selected a male for my mark—and a 
small mark a gazelle offers at 200 yards! The bullet, 
1 1 understand that these vultures have been identified with an Indian 
race, Gyps fulvescens. Such solution scarcely seems likely ? 
2 A 
