XXVIII 



Night-Shoots 



TX an earlier chapter I have ah'eady given some reasons 

 why night-shoots in Equatorial Africa have in 

 them much to deter the hunter, enticing as they may 

 seem in Europe. 



In many cases it is not possible to arrange a "raised 

 ambush " in trees, and many wild animals — sometimes 

 even lions — are too timid to approach closely an "ambush " 

 which is right down on the ground ; so that the sports- 

 man is altogether too dependent on the way the wind is 

 blowing. The attacks of insects of various kinds, above 

 .all of ants, are another horrible nuisance. Xothing in 

 the tropics is more weakening to the body, and more 

 likely to expose it to the attacks of fever, than the loss 

 of one's most necessary night's rest. All the same, I 

 advise every one who is entering upon the study of 

 animal life, to undergo once or twice the infinite hard- 

 ships of a night-shoot, for the sake ot its fascination. 



627 



