lO THE GAME OU BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



With the less-known languages of the African continent many already have 

 vocabularies, but these vocabularies are generally very weak in words for animals. 

 It thus happens that, even in these, to obtain such words the traveller and 

 sportsman must trust to his own researches. Where there are good dictionaries, 

 however, I see no excuse for the writer of a book on game or travels giving his own 

 incorrect versions of words and sentences for the benefit of a confiding public. If he 

 has good grounds for believing the accepted dictionary word is wrong he should 

 verify it carefully before departing from it. 



I could name many books in which the writers, evidently profoundly ignorant of 

 the language they speak of, have endeavoured to put down their versions of different 

 words and sentences. In each of the cases referred to, if they had copied the words 

 they required out of a dictionary they would have saved themselves trouble and their 

 readers mystification. 



In recording matters connected with game here I hope to record only as facts 

 such things as are matters of conviction, not of opinion. An opinion may be formed 

 from two or three instances, but a conviction is an opinion confirmed. 



When the evidence does not appear to be overwhelming I have always tried 

 to qualify my remarks by such words as "perhaps," "possibly," or "I imagine" 

 so and so. Even as such, convictions are liable to be modified very often in the 

 light of subsequent experience. 



There are many things which I have read about game that I am unable to 

 reconcile with my own observations. Some of these things are recorded by so many 

 different observers that it would be foolish to pretend that they are in error. Others 

 appear to be mistakes made by some former writer and taken for granted and 

 repeated by subsequent writers. 



To quote a few of these : — 



Several writers have observed, talking of countries known to me, that it is the 

 invariable rule for rhino to return to their droppings half an hour or so after 

 depositing them and to toss them with their horns. These same writers make no 

 mention of his scratching over them with his hind-legs. I cannot agree that anything 

 IS the invariable rule of any animal, or that in this case that it is even the general rule. 



Now, I have observed a rhino performing this function many times, and on 

 most occasions he has immediately afterwards executed a back shuffle with his 

 hmd legs, just as a dog often scratches after this operation. This has generally been 

 sufficient to break up the droppings or part of them. 



Furthermore, I have seen the distinct marks of this scratching performance, 

 I would not like to say whether hundreds of times or thousands. At any rate, I have 



