WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 367 



if they see him walking or trotting over the plain they know 

 he is not hunting them and they feel no uneasiness about 

 him. In Africa there is no hour of the day or night when 

 the game is safe from its enemies; each hunted creature is 

 always in possible deadly peril, and therefore each grows 

 accustomed to the peril, and pays no heed whatever to it 

 unless it is at that moment imminent. A lion passing 

 over the plain is no more to them than a shark passing 

 under a vessel's stern is to a sailor aboard her. A wilde- 

 beest, zebra, or hartebeest gives itself no more concern 

 over such a lion than the sailor gives himself over the 

 shark, and for the same reason — because there is no 

 danger. 



These same observers, by the way, speak of the plains 

 game as inert and stupid compared to bush game. This, 

 also, is not in accord with our observations. The wilde- 

 beest is as alert, wary, and intelligent as any game of the 

 woods or bush; and animals that are found both in the 

 forest and on the open plain, as the waterbuck, do not 

 differ, as far as we can see, in wariness and intelligence 

 from those that dwell only on the plains. We have some- 

 times found waterbuck more wary than hartebeest, and 

 sometimes less; but in only a very few instances have we 

 ever found individuals of either species as wary as wilde- 

 beest. However, it is always necessary to keep in mind 

 not only that animals of the same species show wide in- 

 dividual differences and wide differences according to lo- 

 cality, but also that the same individuals show astonishing 

 differences in conduct at different times. We have found 

 hartebeests and gazelles very wild in the morning and yet 

 in the afternoon well-nigh heedless of us even when we 



