834 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 



Game abounded on the plains. We saw a couple of 

 herds of giraffes. The hartebeests were the most 

 plentifid and the least shy ; time after time a small 

 herd loitered until we were within a hundred yards 

 before cantering away. Once or twice we saw topi 

 among them ; and often there were mixed herds of 

 zebras and hartebeests. Oribi were common, and some- 

 times uttered a peculiar squealing whistle when they 

 first saw us. The reedbuck also whistled, but their 

 whistle was entirely distinct. It was astonishing how 

 close the reedbuck lay. Again and again we put them 

 up within a few feet of us from patches of reeds or 

 hollows in the long grass. A much more singular 

 habit is the way in which they share these retreats with 

 dangerous wild beasts — a trait common also to the 

 cover-loving bushbuck. From one of the patches of 

 reeds in which Kermit and 1 shot two hyenas a reed- 

 buck doe innnediately afterward took flight. She had 

 been reposing peacefully during the day within fifty 

 yards of several hyenas ! 'I'arlton had more than once 

 found both reedbuck and bushbuck in comparatively 

 small patches of cover whicli also held lions. 



It is, by the way, a little difficult to know what 

 names to use in distinguishing between the sexes of 

 African game. The trouble is one which obtains in 

 all new countries, where the settlers have to name new 

 beasts, and is, of course, primarily due to the fact 

 that the terms already found in the language originally 

 applied only to domestic animals and to European 

 beasts of the chase. Africanders, whether Dutch or 

 Enghsli, speak of all antelope, of either sex, as "buck." 

 Then they call the males and females of the larger kinds 

 bulls and cows, just as Americans do when they speak 

 of moose, wapiti, and caribou , and the males and females 



