126 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



African river-side. It is a wary beast, and the stalker 

 requires to put forth all his skill to circumvent it. 

 In countries where it has not been much shot at, 

 however, it can be approached without great difficulty. 

 When wounded or hard put to it especially if, as 

 sometimes happens, it has been hunted with dogs 

 the gallant beast will take to water and stand at bay, 

 reminding one very much of the red deer of Europe. 

 On such an occasion it ought to be approached with 

 some care ; it will charge desperately at times, and 

 with its powerful horns is quite capable of inflicting 

 dangerous and even fatal wounds. Many a good 

 dog has been slain in these encounters. 



Waterbucks are chiefly grass-feeders, and the most 

 likely places to find them at early dawn are in open 

 glades or clearings not far from bush and water. 

 As a rule the ewes do most of the watching, and the 

 waterbuck ram, with his harem of four or five ewes, 

 is well looked after. These animals are magnificent 

 swimmers, but seldom, unless very hard pressed 

 indeed, take to the deep rivers where crocodiles 

 abound. I have noticed exactly the same trait in 

 the lechwe, one of the kobs or lesser waterbucks, 

 and it may be taken as a general rule that all these 

 water -loving antelopes, fond though they are of 

 stream and water-side, are perfectly well aware of 

 their deadly enemy the crocodile, and will never, if 

 they can avoid it, take to the deep water. 



I believe the finest waterbuck horns in Africa 

 came, years ago, from the upper and middle reaches 

 of the Limpopo river, where these buck were for- 



