CH. ii] GRANT'S GAZELLE 51 



aoain I found wliere hiirtebeests — and, more rarely. 

 Grant's gazelles — had in large numbers deposited their 

 droppings for some time in one spot. Hartebeest are 

 homely creatures, with long faces, high withers, and 

 showing, when first in motion, a rather ungainly gait ; 

 but they are among the swiftest and most endurinir 

 of antelope, and when at speed their action is easy 

 and regular. When pursued by a dog they will often 

 play before him, just as a tommy will, taking great 

 leaps with all four legs inclined backward, evidently in 

 a spirit of fun and derision. In the stomachs of those i 

 killed, as in those of the zebras, 1 found only grass and 

 a few ground-plants ; even in the open bush or thinly- 

 wooded country they seemed to graze, and not browse. 

 One fat and hca\y bull weighed 340 pounds ; a very old 

 bull, with horns much worn down, 299 pounds ; and a 

 cow in high condition, 31.5 pounds. 



The Grant's gazelle is the most beautiful of all these 

 plains creatures. It is about the size of a big white-tail 

 deer ; one heavy buck which I shot, although with poor 

 horns, weighed 171 pounds. The finest among the old 

 bucks ha^e beautiful lyre-shaped horns, over two feet 

 long, and their proud, graceful carriage and lightness of 

 movement render them a delight to the eye. As I have 

 already said, the young and the females have the dark 

 side stripe which marks all the tommies ; but the old 

 bucks lack this, and their colour fades into the brown 

 or sandy of the dry plains far more completely than is 

 the case with zebra or kongoni. Like the other game 

 of the plains, they are sometimes found in small parties, 

 or else in fair- sized herds, by themselves, and sometimes 

 with other beasts ; I have seen a single fine buck in a 

 herd of several hundred zebra and kongoni. The 

 Thomson's gazelles, hardly a third the weight of their 



