316 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



us through. The day I shot the giraffe the porters carrying 

 the skin fell behind, and never got in until next morning. 

 Coming back in the late twilight a party of the big zebra, 

 their forms shadowy and dim, trotted up to us, evidently 

 attracted by the horses, and accompanied us for some 

 rods; and a hedgehog, directly in our path, kept bleating 

 loudly, like an antelope kid. 



The day we spent in taking care of the giraffe skin we, 

 of course, made no hunt. However, in the afternoon I 

 sauntered upstream a couple of miles to look for croco- 

 diles. I saw none, but I was much interested in some 

 zebra and waterbuck. The zebra were on the opposite 

 side of the river, standing among some thorns, and at three, 

 mid-afternoon, they came down to drink; up to this time 

 I had generally found zebra drinking in the evening or at 

 night. Then I saw some waterbuck, also on the opposite 

 bank, working their way toward the river, and seeing a 

 well-marked drinking-place ahead I hastened toward it, 

 and sat down in the middle of the broad game trail leading 

 down to the water on my side. I sat perfectly still, and 

 my clothes were just the color of the ground, and the water- 

 buck never noticed me, though I was in plain view when 

 they drank, just opposite me, and only about fifty yards 

 off. There were four cows and a bull. It was four o'clock 

 in the afternoon. The cows came first, one by one, and 

 were very alert and suspicious. Each continually stopped 

 and stood motionless, or looked in every direction, and gave 

 little false starts of alarm. When they reached the green 

 grass by the water's edge each cropped a few mouthfuls, 

 between times nervously raising its head and looking in 

 every direction, nostrils and ears twitching. They were 



