CHARACTER. 
105 
drive his imposing companions from the drinking-trough 
when they would fain quench their thirst, and fearlessly 
help himself from pieces of meat literally within their 
claws. A specimen of Bonelli’s Eagle (Aquila Bonellii ), 
which we introduced into the cage, was immediately 
killed by them on attempting the same thing. On the 
Blue Nile I once saw, to my intense astonishment, a 
Black-headed Plover ( Pluvianus cegyptius ) quietly making 
his dinner from a fish in the claws of a Sea Eagle 
(Haliaetus vocifer), without that individual taking the 
slightest notice of his small, impudent, but agile guest, 
who he might have destroyed with a single blow of his 
beak. The largest African Vulture ( Otogyps auricularis), 
many true Falcons, Little Owls, Swallows, Goatsuckers, 
Woodpeckers, and Long-tailed Tits, most of the Warblers, 
the Yellow Wagtail, Pigeons, Bucks, Petrels, and Pen¬ 
guins, are all good-natured birds; while, on the con¬ 
trary, the Griffon Vulture (V. fulvus), Bonelli’s Eagle ( A . 
Bonellii ), Goshawks and Sparrow-hawks, Harriers, Owls, 
Shrikes, Ostriches, Bustards, Partridges, Herons, Swans, 
Geese, Cormorants, Barters, and Pelicans, are savage 
and impetuous. I have often kept specimens of V. fulvus 
in confinement, but have never succeeded in making 
friends with them, owing to the spiteful manner in which 
they would fly at the face of anybody who approached 
them, making violent attempts to get at them. Gos¬ 
hawks are like tigers, destroying more birds than they 
require for their sustenance, not even respecting family 
connexions. Shrikes will devour their own relations, if 
they can get the upper hand. 
Some birds appear to be specially blood-thirsty, even 
more so than usual when in confinement. A Goshawk 
will not only destroy a Falcon nearly its equal in 
