THE HARTEBEEST AND ZEBRA 



was feeding a few hundred yards away from our selected 

 camping ground. As we had no meat in camp, and the 

 porters were clamoring for " nyama," and zebra meat 

 being a favorite dish with them, I promised to shoot one 

 of the animals. With only the two gun bearers, I started 

 carefully to approach the little herd, which was feeding 

 on an open grass place, surrounded by small trees. After 

 having stalked the animals for a few minutes, I found that 

 it was impossible to come unobserved any nearer than 

 about two hundred yards from our side, and as none of 

 the animals appeared to be looking in our direction, I 

 crept along on my knees a few yards beyond the nearest 

 cover, having told both gun bearers to remain flat on the 

 ground. 



Suddenly one of the nearest stallions saw me. He 

 must have given some kind of sign to his " comrades," 

 for instantly the whole herd stopped feeding and looked 

 around in different directions. I kept as still as I could 

 and only raised my gun slowly to take a good aim. I then 

 fired at the before-named stallion, but missed. I fired 

 again, but with the same result. The open place, where 

 the zebras stood, was surrounded on three sides by hills, 

 so that the echo of the shots from the .405 Winchester 

 rebounded from all directions. This made the herd 

 stampede. It fortunately took the direction toward the 

 place where I had remained on my knees. I did not 

 move until the nearest zebra was within some forty yards, 

 when I dispatched two of the animals in quick succes- 

 sion. I may remark here that during this expedition I 

 had a special permit to kill a great many more zebras and 

 other animals than was otherwise allowed on the ordinary 



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