586 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



the antelope of a given band or bands shy to a degree; and 

 in the afternoon, on our return to camp, they would let us 

 pass reasonably close, even to windward of them, without 

 showing alarm. Their eyesight was very good, and also 

 their sense of smell. At night they were apparently more 

 alert and uneasy than during the day. Perhaps this is true 

 of all game, although, on the other hand, it is also true that 

 game will allow a man to come closer in the darkness than 

 in daylight. They rarely went where leopards could get 

 at them; but lions occasionally preyed on them, although 

 preferring the larger hartebeests or zebras; and they were 

 objects of chase both for cheetahs and hunting hounds. 

 They never sought to hide themselves or escape observation, 

 although the adult males, which, unlike the females and 

 young males, have no black side stripe, could, perhaps, be 

 called concealingly colored — certainly as compared with 

 impalla or Tommies or hartebeests or steinboks. Their 

 trust was in their speed, eyesight, scent, and wariness. 

 Sometimes, in time of drought, most of them desert a given 

 district, in common with the other game, leaving only a few 

 individuals behind. In other regions, as on the Athi and 

 Kapiti Plains, they remain in practically the same country 

 from year's end to year's end or make a shift of a few miles 

 only. At any one time a herd will usually locate itself in 

 a given area of a few square miles and lead a fairly regular 

 and ordered life, so that each day at about the same time 

 the individuals can be found in or near the same place 

 doing about the same thing. While staying in a permanent 

 camp or on a ranch we would frequently grow acquainted 

 with some gazelle herd which, if unmolested, we could 

 almost always find within a mile or two of the spot to 



