382 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



so long as to seem incredible. In places, we suppose, they 

 dig up bulbs and melons, for it seems impossible that such 

 huge beasts, in the dry heat of that climate, can get on 

 absolutely without water or plants containing moisture, 

 as many smaller desert animals, such as jerboas, unques- 

 tionably do. At any rate, this is a matter of extraordinary 

 interest, which should be studied on the ground by com- 

 petent naturalists. 



The swarming hartebeest of different species which 

 we studied, the herds, mixed and unmixed, the families, 

 the solitary bulls, lived under conditions which offered no 

 such enigmas to the inquirer; they were where they could 

 always get water; they were stationary, for we never even 

 came on them migrating. They lived on or near the 

 equator, and the seasonal changes were evidently not 

 sufficient to give them any one breeding-time. In different 

 places we found calves of different ages; and in other places, 

 notably on the Kapiti and Athi Plains, where the animals 

 were extraordinarily abundant, we found calves of all 

 ages, so that evidently there was no fixed time for the rut 

 or for breeding. Often we found large herds of bulls, 

 cows, and calves; often we found small parties of cows 

 with but a single bull, and other small parties of bulls, or 

 single bulls, which had evidently been unable to appro- 

 priate any cows. The bulls waged fierce battles among 

 themselves. Like the wildebeest bulls, they often fell on 

 their knees opposite each other before springing together, 

 butting and stabbing with their short horns. Their horns 

 do not seem as formidable as those of many other ante- 

 lopes; but the only case we actually came across in which 

 any antelope was killed in one of these duels was that of a 



