WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 365 



When water grows scarce the herd may have to trek to it 

 a dozen miles each day, and if drought dries up the pastur- 

 age then all the wildebeests of a locality may have to shift 

 their ground. Under such conditions the shift may be only 

 for a few miles, or the animals may gather together to the 

 number of several thousand and travel to far-off pastures 

 in a great herd, like a herd of our own bison thirty odd years 

 ago. There must be some kind of telepathy which thus in- 

 fluences all the animals of a given district to travel off in a 

 certain direction, only to halt when they have reached some 

 place which perhaps none of their kind have visited since 

 years before the oldest among them were born. Lemmings 

 and South African springbucks make such treks; the bison 

 occasionally did; and occasionally wildebeest make, or made, 

 such treks in addition to their ordinary shifts. The migra- 

 tions of East African game, both seasonal and irregular, 

 have as yet only been imperfectly worked out. There are 

 some places in which the game spend the whole year and 

 others where the game either shift their ground annually 

 or at irregular intervals. 



As one approaches a herd of wildebeest they stand and 

 gaze, sometimes snorting or grunting, their heads held high 

 and their manes giving them a leonine look. The bulls 

 may pace up and down, pawing the ground and lashing 

 their tails. Then, as the hunter comes nearer, down go 

 their heads, and off they start, rollicking, plunging, and 

 bucking before they settle into a hard, level gallop. Sud- 

 denly they all pull up short and wheel to look back; or while 

 the herd is still cantering in a curve a couple of bulls or old 

 cows will start at full speed in the opposite direction, cur- 

 vetting and prancing as they pass their companions in re- 



