PREFACE 



This handbook is intended as a help or guide to the young or inexperienced 

 sportsman who intends making a hunting trip to Central Africa. 



Spoor cannot be put on paper to exactly resemble the real thing. In drawing 

 these spoor the outlines have been well defined, and it must be noted that they 

 are taken from picked specimens (distinct impressions in the soil). 



As may be surmised the finding and sketching of these spoor and dang has cost 

 not a little time and trouble, and in the case of the lesser known or scarcer animals 

 much questioning of native hunters before the information has been deemed reliable 

 enough to be put on paper. 



It will take months, and perhaps years, of hard experience to tell at a glance 

 to what animal a footprint belongs, and the authors themselves have often felt the 

 want of some fairly reliable handbook while in the field, especially on going to a new 

 country and meeting with species they have not seen before. 



Before one can question a native a certain knowledge of the language is 

 necessary, and this in itself takes much study. The authors, therefore, have given 

 the native names of the different game. 



Many of the ideas and conclusions put forward by the authors may not meet 

 with the approval of perhaps older and more experienced sportsmen, but at the same 

 time they are the result of experience, and differences of opinion concerning the 

 habits of animals arise between most sportsmen, no two holding exactly the same 

 views. It will be noticed that the words "generally," " often," or "usually " are of 

 frequent occurrence in describing the habits of animals. 



We think it the greatest mistake to say that any animal -will do this or that, as 

 the behaviour of no two animals is any more alike than that of two human beings. 

 Moreover the same animal may have totally different habits in different localities. 



We do not wish to dogmatise on a subject which has been so little studied as 



