THE CAPE BUFFALO 9! 



are chiefly concerned in the patch of young grass at 

 the edge of the thicket, growing over the remnants 

 of a bush fire. 



Later. The sun-drenched veldt is fast obscuring 

 with heat haze so fast, indeed, that the zebras and 

 antelopes seem to be walking in water ; the ruddy 

 coats of the hartebeests have blanched to white in 

 the solar rays. Full-fed and drowsy, the buffalo 

 make for the river, whose papyrus brakes will afford 

 a welcome retreat. Filing through the bush, they 

 come upon the water, a sheet of ultramarine matched 

 only by the peerless cobalt of the sky. Acres of 

 flowering rushes wave their flossy plumes in the 

 breeze : hundreds of rough-coated waterbuck, brilliant 

 against the lush green vegetation, stand at gaze 

 among the sedges like a troop of red deer in a High- 

 land glen. Here a startled reedbuck dashes away, its 

 white brush jerked upwards like the tail of a rabbit ; 

 there a couple of wart-hogs, tusked and grizzled, 

 scamper fussily out of a mud wallow. Close to the 

 water's edge a party of hippopotami lie basking in a 

 self-made sand bath ; as the buffaloes plunge into 

 the tepid river a cloud of frogs rise hopping from 

 beneath their very feet. 



Sunset. Immense flocks of tiny birds (wax-bills) 

 wing their undulating flight to shelter in the reed 

 beds. A flock of crested cranes settle in the acacia 

 trees ; night herons croak discordantly in the papyrus 

 jungle. The waters of the marsh swirl in hideous 



