WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 381 



individuals and herds of the common plains game, and we 

 sometimes got a fair idea of the ordinary round of their 

 lives. It is a simple enough round, as a rule, and yet 

 there are extraordinary, indeed inexplicable, variations 

 in it under certain conditions. By far the most extraor- 

 dinary of these is one which concerns not merely harte- 

 beest, but many other African animals, including espe- 

 cially giraffes, eland, and oryx; namely, the power among 

 certain animals of all these species, in certain localities, 

 apparently to go not merely for days but for weeks without 

 drinking. In certain districts of East Africa we found 

 the hartebeest herds drinking at irregular intervals, but 

 at least twice every twenty-four hours; sometimes in the 

 morning or afternoon, that is, in broad sunlight, and some- 

 times at night. In other places they drank but once, and in 

 one or two places, as well as we could tell, only about every 

 other day. But there are regions in Africa where it seems 

 certain that hartebeest never drink at all for weeks at a 

 time, the herds being found where there is absolutely not 

 a drop of surface water. This we have never, personally, 

 seen ; but on the Northern Guaso Nyiro we watched herds of 

 reticulated giraffe which, we are reasonably certain, did not 

 drink for several days, perhaps a week, at a time. Their 

 companions, the oryx and the big gazelle, were drinking 

 regularly. Of course, it is possible in this case that the 

 giraffe were at this time drinking at some water of which 

 none of the few natives knew, but we do not believe it. 

 At any rate, both in the Kalahari Desert and in Somaliland, 

 as well as in certain other tracts, there are seasons of the 

 year in which various animals — giraffe, oryx, eland, harte- 

 beest, gazelle — apparently exist without water for periods 



