AN ACQUIRED INSTINCT 121 



if you shewed yourself than on seeing you at 

 a distance of from two to three hundred yards. 

 This can easily be accounted for. The 

 springbuck has always spent its life in an en- 

 vironment of menace, but as conditions change 

 the nature of the menace changes with them. 

 Formerly the danger-zone for these creatures 

 was that from which the lion, the leopard or 

 the wild dog could spring; it was only surprise 

 at close quarters that the springbuck had to 

 guard against. Given a few seconds' notice 

 of the approach of an enemy, this creature's 

 unsurpassed fleetness enabled it to laugh at 

 danger. This laughter is still expressed in 

 the manner in which a small herd of spring- 

 buck will circle round and round a pursuing 

 dog that is not especially swift — as porpoises 

 sometimes circle around a moving ship. 



We know from accounts left by the very old 

 hunters that in early days, when the killing 

 range of a bullet was little more than a hun- 

 dred yards, springbuck would graze with ap- 

 parent unconcern until approached to within 

 about that distance. But with the disappear- 

 ance of the larger carnivora before firearms, 

 and the increase in the range of the rifle, a 

 wider danger-zone has been created, while the 

 danger of an enemy at close quarters has prac- 



