WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 385 



spaces under the tails, the neighborhoods of the ears (and 

 inside them), and spectacle-like rims around the eyes cov- 

 ered with thick masses of swollen ticks, like dark barnacles; 

 yet the animals would be fat and in good condition. The 

 biting flies and bot-flies annoy them much more. But 

 they like to scratch their hides. We have seen hard, 

 stubby trunks, and even corners of isolated rocks, worn 

 to a polished smoothness by the myriads of game that for 

 scores and perhaps hundreds of years had used them as 

 rubbing-posts. 



Hartebeest are grazers, not browsers. Like most other 

 game, they draw sharp distinctions between different 

 kinds of pasturage. Great areas of long, thick-growing 

 grass will be left untouched, probably because it is sour 

 pasturage, while adjoining areas with different grass will 

 be grazed bare by innumerable wild herds. Hartebeest 

 are rather silent animals; they utter a kind of gasp or 

 sneeze as a note of curiosity, warning, or alarm. They are 

 both wary and silly, and the same animals, under the 

 same conditions, will at different times show, now the 

 utmost wildness, now a foolish tameness. Their high 

 withers and low quarters, and their long, homely heads, 

 carried at right angles to the neck, and therefore almost 

 upright, give them an awkward look; but when at speed 

 their even, regular, powerful action changes their whole 

 look. If pursued by a single dog, for which they care little, 

 they will play in front of him, bounding and buck-jumping. 

 One of their marked habits is to stand on ant-hills, espe- 

 cially if they have the slightest suspicion of threatened 

 danger. When herds are grazing or resting, whether lying 

 down or standing up, single animals will often be seen 



