BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 461 



to have known the common eland to do. These branches 

 are broken to get at the leaves; we found them broken at a 

 height of seven or eight feet, and the crack of the breaking 

 was one of the sounds for which we Hstened as we followed 

 the tracks of a herd. The stomach of one of the animals 

 Kermit shot contained the leaves and pods of a small bean- 

 tree, Lonchocarpus laxifiorus, and the leaves of the shea 

 butter-tree, Butyrospermum parki, specimens of which were 

 preserved by Kermit. 



The country in which we found the giant eland was at 

 that time very dry. The flats of endless dust-colored thorn 

 scrub, which hid everything at a distance of one or two 

 hundred yards, were broken by occasional ranges of low, 

 ragged hills. In the empty watercourses the holes were 

 many miles apart. The thorn scrub was varied by occa- 

 sional palms and patches of bamboo, and more often by 

 trees with bright green leaves and large bean pods. The 

 elands which we killed had been browsing on the bean pods 

 and leaves of this tree, and of another less conspicuous tree. 

 They had not been grazing. They drank at some pool 

 before dawn, and then travelled many miles into the heart 

 of the parched flats, browsing as they went. Before noon 

 they halted, standing or more often lying down, in the scanty 

 shade of some clump of thorn trees. By mid-afternoon 

 they again moved off, feeding. They walked fast, and when 

 alarmed went at a slashing trot. 



They were far more wary than the roan, hartebeest, and 

 other buck found in the same locality. They were found in 

 herds of from ten to thirty or forty individuals; the old 

 bulls, as with all gregarious antelopes, were frequently 

 solitary. The coloring of both the giant eland and the roan 



