236 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



In tlie first place, hartebeests are excessively curi- 

 ous. If not pressed too hard, the troop will often 

 wheel round in the middle of a run and indulge in a 

 good stare at their pursuers. Again, if the leader 

 or leaders of the troop, usually an old bull or two, 

 can be wounded and turned out, the rest seem to 

 lose their heads, and, instead of running straight 

 away, suffer themselves to be easily cut off and slain. 

 As a rule, too, they head straight up wind in an 

 undeviating line, and, with a little manoeuvring, can 

 be pretty easily cut off. I have thus ridden right 

 into a troop, cutting it completely in half. The fore 

 part of the troop got away, the remainder stood 

 bewildered for a minute or two, so that I got a fair 

 shot at a good bull at 150 yards. These animals are, 

 however, extremely tenacious of life, and will run 

 long distances even when mortally wounded. In 

 spite of these weak points in its character, it may 

 with truth be said that the hartebeest is one of the 

 most difficult of all South African game to bring 

 to bag. 



But although, as I have shown, the hartebeest can 

 easily distance the efforts of all human hunters, he 

 has among the fauna of the veldt a pursuer so un- 

 tiring, so relentless, so systematic, and so terrible 

 that even he has to succumb to it. The wild Cape 

 hunting-dog, the " wilde honde " of the Boers, the 

 Lycaon pidus of naturalists, which still hunts in 



