296 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



loved to perch on my shoulder or sit on my lap while 1 

 stroked them. They made dear little pets, and 1 was 

 very sorry when they died. 



On the day that I shot the cock ostrich I also shot a 

 giraffe. The country in which we were hunting marks 

 the southern limit of the " reticulated " giraffe, a form 

 or species entirely distinct from the giraffe we had 

 already obtained in the country south of Kenia. The 

 southern giraffe is blotched with dark on <*i light ground, 

 whereas this northern or north-eastern form is of a 

 uniform dark colour on the back and sides, with a net- 

 work or reticulation of white lines placed in a large 

 pattern on this dark background. The naturalists were 

 very anxious to obtain a specimen of this form from its 

 southern limit of distribution, to see if there was any 

 intergradation with the southern form, of which we had 

 already shot specimens near its northern, or at least 

 north-eastern, limit. Tlie distinction proved sharp. 



On the day in question we breakfasted at six in the 

 morning, and were off immediately afterwards ; and we 

 did not eat anything again until supper at quarter to 

 ten in tlie evening. In a hot chmate a hunter does not 

 need lunch ; and though in a cold climate a simple 

 lunch is permissible, anything like an elaborate or 

 luxurious lunch is utterly out of place if the man is 

 more than a parlour or drawing-room sportsman. Wg 

 saw no sign of giraffe until late in the afternoon. Hour 

 after hour we plodded across the plain, now walkuig. 

 now riding, in the burning heat. The withered grass 

 was as dry as a bone, for the country had been many 

 months without rain ; yet the oryx, zebra, and gazelle 

 evidently throve on the harsh pasturage. There were 

 mnumerable game trails leading hither and tliither, and, 

 after the fashion of game trails, usually fading out after 



