618 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



raised; the head usually up and back, but sometimes 

 stretched in front ; and often he grunts. 



Impalla are gregarious. Each master buck — or ram, as 

 the males of all the lesser antelope are called in Africa — 

 has a harem of twenty or thirty or forty does. Young 

 bucks and very old bucks may be found solitary or in 

 parties of half a dozen; a doe with a new-born fawn keeps 

 by itself. Once we crept up to within ten yards of a doe 

 and fawn lying down among the bushes. The big bucks 

 fight fiercely for the mastery of the does. Kermit killed 

 one with the broken horn of a rival imbedded in its neck. 

 Evidently the two supple, vigorous beasts had bounded 

 together with such force that the horn was broken off short ; 

 the piece was about ten inches long, of which the tip to 

 the extent of three inches or so was imbedded in the muscle 

 so firmly that it was pulled out only with effort. The 

 wounded animal seemed in perfect health. 



Impalla live in cover, sometimes thick, sometimes thin, 

 and never go more than a few miles from water. On the 

 Athi we found them grazing on the open plains, a mile or 

 two away from water, with gazelles and hartebeests, early 

 in the morning and late in the afternoon; if disturbed, the 

 gazelles and the hartebeests ran in the open, whereas the 

 impalla at once left them and headed for the cover which 

 bordered the river, a thick growth of trees and bushes. In 

 this cover they passed several hours during the heat of the 

 day, usually lying down, sometimes feeding. On the North- 

 ern Guaso Nyiro and the Sotik I never happened to see them 

 more than a couple of hundred yards from cover. They 

 are chiefly grazers. They feed and rest alternately, day and 

 night, for a few hours at a stretch. Of course, where much 



