Impalah 



I think the water-buck sent the impalah first, be- 

 cause the latter are better sentries, to see if the 

 way was clear. 



Again, at a certain camp on the Anglo-German 

 Boundary Commission, where I stayed for a 

 month, I had ample opportunity to verify this. 

 Regularly every morning, down a certain path, 

 I met the same herd of impalah at about 5.30 

 a.m. coming back from drinking. I met them so 

 regularly because I never fired at them. Further 

 along I always saw in the same place two herds of 

 water-buck feeding away from water at about 5.50 

 or 6 a.m., and again, ten minutes after the latter, 

 a splendid old water-buck, which I mentally 

 marked down as mine every day, but could never 

 fire at, as he was too close to the buffalo ground. 

 I got him in the end. 



The reader must please not think I have got 

 mixed up with impalah and water-buck, but the 

 fact of two species of game with quite different 

 habits occurring together like this makes me 

 wish to get that fact off my chest by taking the 

 similarity together. 



The impalah is what one may call a "local" 

 beast. 



This antelope has, in common with Grant's 

 gazelle, one of the most deceptive heads I know, 

 to decide about as to whether it is worth having 

 or not. If his head, when seen "end on" as he 

 looks at one, curves in very much at the tips, 



133 



