xiv CONTENTS 



PAGE 



pack — Dubur — The damty little baira : a chance missed and a 

 cruel disappomtment — Some compensation : a greater kudu shot 

 — ^The Maritime hills— A giant fig-tree — Baboons— The last day's 

 march : riding the low moon out of the sky — Pelzehi's gazelle : two 

 good heads — The last incident : Elmi bitten by a snake : no evil 

 results : Berbera once more — Selling off : an auction that ended 

 suddenly— Paying off : Somali gratitude— A word for my shikaris 

 — Abdilleh : his pluck — Luck, good and bad — ^The last of Somali- 

 land— And of Sonny— The Call of the Wild . . . .175 



CHAPTER XIV 



General notes — List of animals shot and encountered — ^The leopard in 

 SomaUland : some points in night- watohmg — " Leopard " or 

 " panther " ? — The lesser kudu : its elusiveness — Effectiveness 

 of the "318 rifle : the capped bullet : the aperture rear-sight — The 

 Sherwood rifle : its powers and limitations — Necessity for insisting 

 on these hmitations — Reasons why 150 yards should be considered 

 the maximum range for this and similar rifles — Long ranges : 

 trajectory and eye-sight — Importance of the first shot — Wounded 

 animals — Averages — Do animals feel pain ? — Cruelty in Nature — 

 Views of Dr. Wallace and Mr. Long : criticisms — " BriUiant " 

 joui-nalism — Diminution of game in Somaliland ? — Independence 

 of a fountam pen ......... 191 



CHAPTER XV 



Protective colouration in animals — Theory carried to extremes— A 

 reaction which goes too far — ^Mr. Selous' views — Fallacious basis of 

 his deductions from observations correct in themselves — Alter- 

 natives to the protective colouration theory — Darmn and sexual 

 selection — Dr. Wallace : recognition marks — No theory adequate to 

 take the place of protective colouration — What do Selous' observa- 

 tions really prove ? — The kudu's stripes — The zebra at the present 

 day — The quagga : explanation of its uniform colouration — A 

 first clue to the problem's solution : the zebra probably originally 

 an inhabitant of thick jungle — Habits of carnivora — Do the Felidae 

 hunt by scent ? — Evidence to the contrary — Nocturnal habits of 

 the lion — Probability that the lion originally hunted by day — 

 Evolutionary development in both lion and zebra — Deduction that 

 colouration was originally evolved under different conditions when 

 protection by concealment was of value — Colour at night — Smaller 

 animals — Why the buffalo is not protectively coloured — Conclusion 

 that objections to the theory of protective colouration in the larger 

 animals are onl}' objections in seeming — The harmony of Nature 214 



