242 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



opening some fifty or sixty yards in diameter. 

 As we approached the edge of this open space, 

 advancing very cautiously in a stooping attitude 

 down a hippopotamus path, my guide suddenly 

 dropped to the ground. As he did so, I got a clear 

 view past him, and saw, standing amongst the grass 

 and bush, just on the further side of the opening, 

 what I knew was an inyala doe, as I could distinctly 

 see it was reddish in colour. I could see no other 

 animal near her, and as I required two specimens 

 of inyala does, the one for the British and the 

 other for the South African Museum, I lost no time 

 about firing at the animal in question, which I saw 

 drop instantly to the shot. But even as she did so, 

 there appeared in her place, or very close to where 

 she had stood, a great black shaggy form, which, 

 indistinctly as I could see it in the deep shadow of 

 the bush, I knew was a male inyala — the first that 

 my eyes had ever looked upon in the flesh. My 

 rifle was a single-barrelled one ; and before I could 

 fire the shot that might make that rare and beautiful 

 beast mine, I had to open the breech of my rifle, 

 take another cartridge from my belt, slip it into the 

 chamber, close the breech again, and then raise the 

 rifle to my shoulder and take aim. All this meant 

 time and noise. Would the inyala, which stood 

 like a statue by the dead body of his mate, give me 

 the few seconds I required to take his own life too ? 

 I little thought he would, but he did ; and as I 

 raised my rifle once more, and took a quick but 

 careful sight on his dark shoulder, I felt, as I pulled 

 the trigger, that he was mine. 



As the report of the rifle sounded, he plunged 

 madly forward, and was instantly lost to sight in 

 the thick scrub. But I felt sure he carried death 

 with him ; and so it proved, for we found him lying 

 dead not twenty yards from where he had stood 

 when the bullet struck him. The fatal missile had 



