298 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



gray, like a wild ass. When the two zebras are together 

 the coloring of the smaller kind is more conspicuous. In 

 scanning a herd with the glasses we often failed to make 

 out the species until we could catch the broad black and 

 white stripes on the rump of the common "bonte quagga." 

 There were many young foals with the kangani; I hap- 

 pened not to see any with the Burchell's. I found the kan- 

 gani even more wary and more difficult to shoot than the 

 oryx. The first one I killed was shot at a range of four 

 hundred yards; the next I wounded at that distance, and 

 had to ride it down, at the cost of a hard gallop over very 

 bad country and getting torn by the "wait a bit" thorns. 



There were a number of rhinos on the plains, dull of 

 wit and senses, as usual. Three times we saw cows with 

 calves trotting at their heels. Once, while my men were 

 skinning an oryx, I spied a rhino less than half a mile off. 

 Mounting my horse I cantered down, and examined it 

 within a hundred yards. It was an old bull with worn 

 horns, and never saw me. On another occasion, while we 

 were skinning a big zebra, there were three rhinoceros, all 

 in different places, in sight at the same time. 



There were also ostriches. I saw a party of cocks, with 

 wings spread and necks curved backward, strutting and 

 dancing. Their mincing, springy run is far faster than, 

 when the bird is near by, it seems. The neck is held back 

 in running, and when at speed the stride is twenty-one feet. 

 No game is more wary or more difficult to approach. I 

 killed both a cock and a hen which I found the naturalists 

 valued even more than a cock. We got them by stumbling 

 on the nest, which contained eleven huge eggs, and was 

 merely a bare spot in the sand, surrounded by grass two feet 



