THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



never heard or read of any authentic case where human be- 

 ings have been attacked or killed by the cheetah, although 

 when wounded and cornered, this animal puts up a deter- 

 mined fight, and may then be a very dangerous antagonist. 

 I have twice had the pleasure of facing wounded hunting 

 leopards, who were certainly bent on mischief, and both 

 of which showed great courage. 



After a couple of days' very successful hunting in the 

 country southwest of Lake Baringo my taxidermist asked 

 me one day not to bring home any more skins of big game 

 for a day or two, as he and his men had all they could 

 do to take care of the animals shot the two previous days. 

 But as there were in the vicinity a great many beautiful 

 birds, which I coveted for our New York museum, and 

 as some of the men, specially trained to skin birds, had 

 nothing particular to do, I went out one morning with my 

 double-barreled shotgun to collect birds, taking some ten 

 or twelve men with me. The gun bearer was ordered to 

 walk close behind me with one of my powerful rifles, for 

 the great charm of hunting in Africa lies partly in the 

 fact that while the sportsman may start out with the inten- 

 tion of shooting small antelopes or birds, he may suddenly 

 and entirely unexpectedly be confronted by a lion, a rhino, 

 a buffalo, a leopard, or even an elephant, of whose proxim- 

 ity he had no idea. 



After having shot a number of birds, which from time 

 to time I sent back to camp, I suddenly saw, through a little 

 opening in the bush, a strange-looking heron, staring in a 

 certain direction, and moving its head most curiously up 

 and down, as it intently gazed into the bush. From this 

 attitude of the bird, I presumed that some other animal 



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