332 
THE NEW AFRICA 
that it is only the sense of sight that leads him to his meal. 
Let me, too, then, throw the weight of my experience on this 
point into the balance, in the hope of winning converts to the 
opinion I adopt. The aasvogel is not guided by the sense of 
smell, for the reasons: (1) When a head of game is shot, the 
hunter, on looking round, cannot clearly discern a single aasvogel 
in sight. They are soaring in circles far overheard, in the 
attenuated atmosphere, appearing occasionally only as specks 
against the blue sky. No scent from the killed game could 
possibly reach them through the shifting currents of air inter¬ 
vening between themselves and the earth, yet, no matter what 
the conditions of the keen atmosphere, in a few minutes one 
bird appears, soaring in majestic circles downwards, then another 
and another, until, in the space of seven minutes at most, by my 
own observation, there is quite a cloud of these ghoulish crea¬ 
tures circling close overhead, with their wings audibly hissing 
and whistling through the air. Most of these have travelled 
several miles from all directions, while there may be only a 
light breeze blowing at the time, a circumstance that effectu¬ 
ally precludes the possibility of scent having reached them 
at this distance ; while those coming down wind are, from their 
situation, placed quite beyond the possibility of being able 
to ‘ get a whiff of the game.’ The first aasvogel that arrives may 
reach the spot about one minute after the game is killed, from 
a distance not less than a full mile off. A ‘ zephyr ’ that will 
carry scent at the rate of one mile a minute bears quite another 
appellation in South Africa, It is only necessary to imagine 
the force of an air current of sixty miles an hour, and compare it 
with the existing circumstance, to at once recognise the 
absurdity of an aasvogel scenting blood at that rate of speed, 
even if the scent had the power of penetrating directly upwards, 
without considering the horizontal direction of winds in general. 
This in some measure makes it difficult to comprehend the 
argument advanced in favour of the scent theory. 
It is more likely that the bird discovers his prey by eyesight, 
and is watched in his course by others, who, noticing by the altered 
