A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 139 



a German specialist who had divided the African buffalo 

 into fifteen or twenty different species, based upon differ- 

 ences in various pairs of horns. The worth of such fine 

 distinctions, when made on insufficient data, can be gath- 

 ered from the fact that on the principles of specific divi- 

 sion adopted in the pamphlet in question, the three bulls we 

 had shot would have represented certainly two and possi- 

 bly three different species. 



Heller was soon on the ground with his skinning-tent 

 and skinners, and the Boer farmer went back to fetch the 

 ox wagon on which the skins and meat were brought in 

 to camp. Laymen can hardly realize, and I certainly did 

 not realize, what an immense amount of work is involved 

 in preparing the skins of large animals such as buffalo, 

 rhino, hippo, and above all elephant, in hot climates. On 

 this first five weeks' trip we got over seventy skins, includ- 

 ing twenty-two species ranging in size from a dikdik to a 

 rhino, and all of these Heller prepared and sent to the Smith- 

 sonian. Mearns and Loring were just as busy shooting birds 

 and trapping small mammals. Often while Heller would be 

 off for a few days with Kermit and myself, Mearns and Loring 

 would be camped elsewhere, in a region better suited for the 

 things they were after. While at Juja Farm they went down 

 the Nairobi in a boat to shoot water-birds, and saw many 

 more crocodiles and hippo than I did. Loring is a remark- 

 ably successful trapper of small mammals. I do not believe 

 there is a better collector anywhere. Dr. Mearns, in addition 

 to birds and plants, never let pass the opportunity to collect 

 anything else from reptiles and fishes to land shells. More- 

 over, he was the best shot in our party. He killed two great 

 bustards with the rifle, and occasionally shot birds like 



