54 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 



of them sweet of smell ; and birds of numerous kinds 

 abounded. When we left the hills and the wooded 

 watercourses we might ride hour after hour across the 

 barren desolation of the flats, while herds of zebra and 

 hartebeest stared at us through the heat haze. Then 

 the zebra, with shrill, barking neighs, would file off 

 across the horizon, or the high-withered hartebeests, 

 snorting and bucking, would rush off in a confused 

 mass, as unreasoning panic succeeded foolish confidence. 

 If I shot anything, vultures of several kinds and the 

 tall, hideous marabout storks gathered before tlie 

 skinners were through with their work ; they usually 

 stayed at a wary distance, but the handsome ravens, 

 glossy-hued, with white napes, big-billed, long-winged, 

 and short- tailed, came rouiid more familiarly. 



I rarely had to take the trouble to stalk anything ; 

 the shoothig was necessarily at rather long range, but 

 by manoeuvring a little, and never walking straight 

 toward a beast, I was usually able to get whatever the 

 naturalists wished. Sometimes I shot fairly well, and 

 sometimes badly. On one day, for instance, the entry 

 in my diary ran : " Missed steinbuck, pig, impalla and 

 Grant ; awful." On another day it ran in part as 

 follows : " Out with Heller. Hartebeest, 250 yards, 

 facing me ; shot through face, broke neck. Zebra, very 

 large, quartering, 160 yards, between neck and shoulder. 

 Buck Grant, 220 yards, walking, behind shoulder. 

 Steinbuck, 180 yards, standing, behind shoulder.' 

 Generally each head of game bagged cost me a goodly 

 number of bullets ; but only twice did I wound animals 

 which I failed to get ; in the other cases the extra 

 cartridges represented either misses at animals which 

 got clean away untouched, or else a running fusillade at 

 wounded animals which I eventually got. I am a very 

 strong believer in making sure, and, therefore, in shoot- 



