WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 389 



Certainly three-fourths or four-fifths of the whole time 

 was spent in grazing or chewing the cud. Most of the 

 remaining time the animals were sleeping, either lying 

 down or standing up. There were no stated times for sleep- 

 ing or resting and grazing. Usually during the heat of the 

 day the herds would lie down, sometimes half the individuals 

 lying down and the others standing up; or they might stand 

 or lie under the thin half-shade of almost leafless, wizened 

 little thorn-trees. One or two, or more, might be keeping 

 a lookout. Yet more than once we have seen herds feeding 

 at high noon, especially if the day was overcast. On one 

 occasion a herd we had watched grazing all the afternoon, 

 and which we expected to see then go to water, deliberately 

 lay down toward nightfall, and were still lying down when 

 it grew too dark to see them. Probably after feeding and 

 moving around for a few hours the herd rests or lies down, 

 whether by night or day. Hartebeests may come to water 

 in the night-time, or at dawn or in the late evening, or in 

 the sunlight of the forenoon or afternoon. Ordinarily a 

 typical herd consists of bulls, cows, and calves of all ages. 

 The bulls may fight among themselves; the cow about to 

 calve may go off alone to drop her calf, and not rejoin the 

 herd for a few days; and a bull wishing to work off its 

 rutting rage in a safe fashion will plough along on its knees 

 or almost stand on its head and dig the bare earth with its 

 horns. There are continual false alarms, and at the mo- 

 ment of attack by a beast of prey the panic and terror of 

 the stampeding creatures reduce them to madness. But 

 these emotions are as short-lived as they are violent, and 

 soon the run becomes a canter; the herd gathers and begins 

 to graze without further thought of the one that has been 



