180 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



to charge. But a wart-hog boar which Kermit ran down 

 the same day and shot with his revolver did charge, and 

 wickedly. 



While running one of his cheetahs Kermit put up two 

 old wildebeest bulls, and they joined in the procession, 

 looking as if they too were pursuing the cheetah; the chee- 

 tah ran first, the two bulls, bounding and switching their 

 tails, came next, and Kermit, racing in the rear, gained 

 steadily. Wildebeest are the oddest in nature and conduct, 

 and in many ways the most interesting, of all antelopes. 

 There is in their temper something queer, fiery, eccentric, 

 and their actions are abrupt and violent. A single bull will 

 stand motionless with head raised to stare at an intruder 

 until the latter is quarter of a mile off; then down goes his 

 head, his tail is lashed up and around, and off he gallops, 

 plunging, kicking, and shaking his head. He may go 

 straight away, he may circle round, or even approach nearer 

 to, the intruder; and then he halts again to stare motion- 

 less, and perhaps to utter his grunt of alarm and defiance. 

 A herd when approached, after fixed staring will move off, 

 perhaps at a canter. Soon the leaders make a half wheel, 

 and lead their followers in a semicircle; suddenly a couple 

 of old bulls leave the rest, and at a tearing gallop describe a 

 semicircle in exactly the opposite direction, racing by their 

 comrades as these canter the other way. With one accord 

 the whole troop may then halt and stare again at the object 

 they suspect; then off they all go at a headlong run, kick- 

 ing and bucking, tearing at full speed in one direction, then 

 suddenly wheeling in semicircles so abrupt as to be almost 

 zigzags, the dust flying in clouds; and two bulls may sud- 

 denly drop to their knees and for a moment or two fight 



