WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 493 



the wet meadows, and in the glades among the masses of 

 vine-draped trees and bushes. They fed at all hours of the 

 day and night. We saw a small party of cows feeding on 

 an absolutely treeless stretch of wet meadow at noon. We 

 found a herd feeding in the glades among thick clusters of 

 trees in mid-forenoon, and another herd in the mid-after- 

 noon. We also found them grazing by moonlight. 



In the Lado we did not find the waterbuck in the papy- 

 rus, but out among the thin groves of scantily leaved acacias, 

 often many miles away from the Nile or from any water 

 save small ponds, in practically the same localities fre- 

 quented by the Nile hartebeests. Indeed, we often found 

 the species together. When alarmed these waterbuck sim- 

 ply galloped off among the thickets, not heading for the reed 

 beds, even if these were near by. In the Uasin Gishu coun- 

 try also we often found the Jackson hartebeest and the 

 waterbuck in the same country, and even in the same herd; 

 for the hartebeests occasionally ventured into the fairly 

 thick brush, dotted with trees, which came just outside the 

 belt of dense timber which fringed the river haunts of the 

 waterbuck; while the waterbuck occasionally ventured far 

 out on the open, grassy plains, into the ordinary haunts of 

 the hartebeest. As a rule, however, the two species kept 

 separate, although their habitats overlapped on the edges. 

 We once shot a hartebeest bull from the top of an ant heap; 

 and a waterbuck cow with her calf continued to lie under 

 one of the many surrounding bushes for some minutes. It 

 would be quite impossible to say, from our experience, 

 which of the two species was the wariest. We found in one 

 place, or at one time, the waterbuck shyer than the harte- 

 beest; and in another place, or at another time, the harte- 



