52 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch ii 



larger kinsfolk, are found scattered everywhere ; they 

 are not as highly gregarious as the zebra and kongoni, 

 and are not found in such big herds ; but their little 

 bands^ — now a buck and several does, now a couple of 

 does with their fawns, now three or four bucks together, 

 now a score of individuals — are scattered everywhere on 

 the flats. Like the Grants, their flesh is delicious, and 

 they seem to have much the same habits. But they 

 have one very marked characteristic — their tails keep 

 up an incessant nervous twitching, never being still for 

 more than a few seconds at a time, while the larger 

 gazelle in this part of its range rarely moves its tail at 

 all. They are grazers, and they feed, rest, and go to 

 water at irregular times, or, at least, at different times 

 in different localities ; and although they are most apt 

 to rest during the heat of the day, I have seen them 

 get up soon after noon, having lain down for a couple 

 of hours, feed for an hour or so, and then lie down 

 again. In the same way the habits of the game as to 

 migration vary with the diflerent districts, in Africa as 

 in America. There are places where all the game, 

 perhaps notably the wildebeests, gather in herds of 

 thousands, at certain times, and travel for scores of 

 miles, so that a district which is teeming with game at 

 one time may be almost barren of large wild life at 

 another. But my information was that around the 

 Kapiti plains there was no such complete and extensive 

 shift. If the rains are abundant and the grass rank, 

 most of the game will be found far out in the middle of 

 the plains ; if, as was the case at the time of my visit, 

 there has been a long drought, the game will be found 

 ten or fifteen miles away, near or among the foothills. 



Unless there was something special on, like a lion or 

 rhinoceros hunt, I usually rode off' followed only by my 



