nd then
down it sank on the ground. We had no doubt that it was one of the
creatures which had been speared at the hopo hunt when Stanley was
present, and having escaped, had wandered thus far from its usual
haunts. Scarcely had it disappeared, when we saw coming from a distance
a large flight of crows, who with loud croakings descended to the
ground. Presently a number of kites and buzzards approached from far
and near, though an instant before not a bird was to be seen, and
alighted on the same spot. We hurried on, wishing to get a sight of the
spectacle; but before we got up, David pointed out, high above us in the
air, a huge bird, which came wheeling round in a spiral line, seemingly
out of the sky, towards the same spot.

"I know that fellow," he said; "he is an _oricus_. He builds his nest
far up among the mountains, in the fissures of rocks. He equals in size
the famed condor of America, and if we could kill one, we should find
that across the wings when expanded he measures ten feet. No bird is
bolder in flight. At daybreak he left his aerie, and mounting in the
sky far beyond the reach of human vision, watched with telescopic eye
the creatures wandering on the earth's surface. That poor zebra was
seen by him probably long ago, and he knew well that he must shortly
become his prey."

While David was speaking, numerous other oricus descended like the
first. Their common name is the sociable vulture--_Vultur oricularis_.
By the time we got up to the spot, the poor zebra was half torn to
pieces by their powerful claws. The oricus having satisfied their
hunger, and carried off what they required for their young, the buzzards
approached, followed in a short time by the crows, who quickly denuded
the bones of flesh.

On reaching home, we found that a stranger had arrived from the nearest
village to the north of us, which Stanley had once visited. He came
with a sad story. A young child had strayed out from the village the
previous morning, and had been carried off by a lion, and the father and
another man, going in search of the animal, had not since returned; but
evident signs had been discovered that they also had been killed. A
panic had seized the people, and they had sent to ask our assistance to
destroy their fierce assailant with our guns. They knew well, from the
way the lions attacked them, that they were accustomed to human flesh,
which, when once a lion has tasted, it is said, he will alw