94 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



north of the Victoria Nyanza, they noticed that 

 a large antelope accompanied the herd and acted 

 as sentinel. The conspicuous stripes of the zebras 

 may, on the other hand, be advantageous to the 

 wildebeest : for should any of the former be sus- 

 picious of any danger they would naturally become 

 restless, and the agitated movements of such 

 brilliantly arrayed companions would at once 

 catch the eye of the antelopes. We thus see 

 in the comradeship of Burchell zebra and blue 

 wildebeest no chance whim of Nature, but a plain 

 matter of fact system of life insurance in which 

 all parties invest their wits and vigilance, and in 

 which all reap the substantial bonus represented 

 by their mutual safety. 



Readers of the adventures of Gordon Gumming, 

 who hunted in South Africa during 1843 — 49, 

 will remember that he relates how an old bull 

 wildebeest was captured by his men under very 

 curious circumstances. The animal had somehow 

 managed to get one foreleg caught over his horn, 

 and being prevented from withdrawing it by the 

 curvature of the tips, was quite unable to run, so 

 that he fell an easy prey to Gumming's Hottentots. 

 The hunter himself suggests that the old wilde- 

 beest had got his leg thus inextricably hooked in 

 fighting with his fellows, and this explanation is 

 doubtless satisfactory enough. There remains, 

 however, another explanation which has not 



