48 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



more familiar domestic categories. Study has shown that 

 sheep and goats grade into one another among the wild 

 species; and the so-called antelopes include forms differing 

 from one another quite as sharply as any of them differ 

 from their kinsfolk that are represented in the farmyard. 



Zebra share with hartebeest the distinction of being 

 the most abundant game animal on the plains, throughout 

 the whole Athi region. The two creatures are fond of as- 

 sociating together, usually in mixed herds; but some- 

 times there will merely be one or two individuals of one 

 species in a big herd of the other. They are sometimes, 

 though less frequently than the hartebeest, found in open 

 bush country; but they live in the open plains by choice. 



I could not find out that they had fixed times for rest- 

 ing, feeding, and going to water. They and the harte- 

 beests formed the favorite prey of the numerous lions of 

 the neighborhood; and I believe that the nights, even 

 the moonlight nights, were passed by both animals under a 

 nervous strain of apprehension, ever dreading the attack 

 of their arch enemy, and stampeding from it. Their stam- 

 pedes cause the utmost exasperation to the settlers, for 

 when in terror of the real or imaginary attack of a lion, 

 their mad, heedless rush takes them through a wire fence 

 as if it were made of twine and pasteboard. But a few 

 months before my arrival a mixed herd of zebra and harte- 

 beest, stampeded either by lions or wild dogs, rushed 

 through the streets of Nairobi, several being killed by the 

 inhabitants, and one of the victims falling just outside the 

 Episcopal Church. The zebras are nearly powerless when 

 seized by lions; but they are bold creatures against less 

 formidable foes, trusting in their hoofs and their strong 



