454 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



The bongo is intermediate in size and bodily character- 

 istics between a bushbuck and an eland. It is also in some 

 respects intermediate in habits; like the former, it haunts 

 dense cover, and, like the latter, is found in herds. But it 

 differs markedly from both in many other respects. It is 

 a beast of the dense forests and high timber; among big 

 beasts its haunts are shared only by the forest hog and the 

 leopard. The leopard preys on the young of both the hog 

 and the antelope; but it does not attack the adult hog, and 

 never meddles with an adult bongo — an animal as large as 

 an Alderney cow, both sexes of which carry long and sharp 

 horns. 



The dense, dark, wet forests in which the bongo dwells 

 are filled with a mass of undergrowth — bushes, bamboo, 

 plants of various kinds. It is impossible to see more than 

 a few yards through this growth, and almost impossible for 

 a man to traverse it noiselessly; whereas the bongo runs 

 through it at speed and most often in a crouching position, 

 getting under low limbs and through narrow openings in a 

 way astounding for so big an animal. It is exceedingly shy 

 and wary, and is such an adept in skulking, hiding, running, 

 and watching that even the 'Ndorobo, the wild, naked hunt- 

 ers of the dense forests, find it very difficult to kill; while 

 only half a dozen white men, or even fewer, have ever shot it. 



We did not find the bongo nocturnal. The 'Ndorobo, 

 with whom we hunted, said they never fed at night. We 

 came across one solitary bull and four herds, and followed 

 their trails for hours, studying what they did. The bull, 

 and three of the four herds, lay down and rested in the 

 middle of the day, and fed as they moved slowly forward 

 through the forenoon and the afternoon. The fourth herd 



