Water- Buck 



friendly shade of some trees or thick bush. If you 

 hunt for him there you must be careful, because, 

 as like as not, he will have heard you first and 

 will have left hurriedly ! The water-buck is also 

 a " local" animal. 



I have heard them make such a noise when 

 disturbed, crashing through bush and reeds, that 

 I have mistaken them for buffalo. 



They are not as hard to kill as most animals 

 I have come across : that is to say, one bullet will 

 almost always do the trick, where five in the same 

 place will make no difference to the hartebeeste. 



It will be seen in Mr. Rowland Ward's book, 

 Records of Big Game, that in East Africa the 

 sing-sing carries a bigger head than the ellipsi- 

 prymnus : that is to say, when one has been 

 shooting each kind, the sing-sing will probably be 

 found to have come out on top. 



I got a most unusual one on Laikipia. Its 

 horns were almost straight, and made an equi- 

 lateral triangle with the tip to tip measurement. 

 It is an ugly, although an enormous-looking head. 



A water-buck, on catching sight of one, usually 

 in bush or long grass of course, stands and stares 

 for a few seconds. When he bounds off he will 

 usually stop again within fifty yards to have 

 another look. Be ready for that shot if you con- 

 sider the head worth having. His head — the 

 females do not carry horns — is a little bit deceptive, 

 but not so hard to decide on as other animals. 



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