184 HUNTING IN THE SOTTK [t h. viii 



or chats were very familiar, flitting within a few yards 

 of the tents. They were the earhest birds to sing. Just 

 before oiu* eyes could distinguish the first faint streak of 

 dawn, first one and then another of them would begin 

 to sing, apparently eitlier on the ground or in the air, 

 until there was a chorus of their sweet music. Then 

 they M^ere silent again until the sun was about to rise. 

 We always heard them when we made a very early 

 start to hunt. By the way, with the game of the plains 

 and the thin bush, \^e found that nothing was gained 

 by getting out early in the morning ; we were quite as 

 likely to get what we wanted in the e\'ening, or, indeed, 

 at high noon. 



The last day at this camp Kermit, Tarlton, and I 

 spent on a twelve-hour lion hunt. I opened the day 

 inauspiciously, close to camp, by missing a zebra, which 

 we wished for the porters. Then Kermit, by a good 

 shot, killed a tommy buck with the best head we had 

 yet got. Early in the afternoon we reached our objec- 

 tive — some high koppies, broken by cliffs and covered 

 with brush. There were klipspringers on these koppies 

 — little rock-loving antelopes, with tiny lioofs and queer 

 brittle Imir ; they are marvellous jumpers, and continu- 

 ally utter a bleating whistle. I broke the neck of one 

 as it rail at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards ; but 

 the shot was a fluke, and did not make amends for the 

 way I had missed the zebra in the morning. Among 

 the thick brush on these liills were huge euphorbias, 

 aloes bearing masses of orange flowers, and a cactus-like 

 ground plant with pretty pink blossoms. All kinds of 

 game from the plains, even rhino, had wandered over 

 these hill-tops. 



B'.it what especially interested us was that we im- 

 mediately found fresh beds of lions, and one regular 



