102 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



fairly well kept in view, and their beautiful tactics of 

 retreat admired, especially the grace and ease with 

 which they duck their long necks beneath obstructing 

 branches, and tack this way and that, sheering easily 

 round the boles of the thicker timber. Some hunters, 

 in place of running right up to the heels of the 

 giraffe they may have singled out, and, dropping 

 their reins, firing from the saddle, prefer to jump off 

 when within a hundred yards and take their shot 

 from the ground. Personally I prefer the former 

 system, which I have found an excellent one. 



In East and most parts of Central Africa, where 

 giraffe are to be found, horses cannot often be 

 employed, and the hunter must secure his game on 

 foot. -Stalking is a much more difficult process 

 than hunting giraffe on horseback ; the sportsman 

 is then placed at considerable disadvantage, and 

 the giraffe, from his towering height, its keen eye- 

 sight, and its delicate sense of smell, is more often 

 than not able to elude its pursuer. Still, giraffes 

 are stalked in this manner. It is possible, I think, 

 that, on the western borders of Abyssinia, where 

 Baker hunted with horses forty or fifty years ago, 

 Somali ponies could be well employed even at the 

 present day. When spooring giraffe in bush and 

 forest country a very sharp look-out must be kept. It 

 is astonishing to see how keenly awake even the hawkr 

 eyed natives are on such occasions. Giraffes stand 

 often completely motionless, and the long neck is more 

 often than not mistaken for some limb of a neighbour- 

 ing tree ; the play of light and shadow through the 



