SHY ANIMALS 



suspicious they emit a sound that is half sneeze, half 

 snort, and is very characteristic of all the hartebeestes. 

 It is a sound that once heard is not easily forgotten, 

 and when it comes, for instance, from a kongoni, 

 which is a solemn melancholy-looking animal, it is 

 decidedly comic. 



During the day, if they have not been lately 

 disturbed by natives, they will sometimes rest near 

 their feeding-ground, if any shade can be found there. 

 I have seen several old bulls under a tree in the open 

 at midday, but rarely any females, and I think that 

 on the whole it is the latter who are the more sus- 

 picious. But, with few exceptions, arrola are some 

 of the shyest and most wary animals I have ever 

 hunted. Mr. A. B. Percival, who has had upwards 

 of twenty years' experience with big game in Africa, is 

 of the same opinion, and found them incredibly hard 

 to approach in the Tana Valley, where he was hunting 

 them. They are not much alarmed at the sound of 

 the rifle, but the mere sight of a man even at a great 

 distance will send them flying into the bush in the 

 wildest alarm, and they will not halt until they have 

 put a great distance between themselves and their 

 pursuer. This seemed very strange to me, as at any 

 rate at Golosh^ Gorm6 it is improbable that they had 

 ever seen a man dressed in clothes before. Another 

 interesting fact concerning their habits is that once 

 they are thoroughly alarmed they will not return to 

 that spot for at least a week, or even more. They 

 generally trek off to some other small plain, fifteen or 

 twenty miles away, and seem to remain uneasy and 

 very much on the qui vive for days afterwards, as 

 I found to my own cost. 



Old bulls generally lead a solitary life, or may 



lOI 



