yo HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



Looking in the direction he pointed, I saw a lovely male kudu standing in some 

 thick bush. He was busily engaged rubbing his horns against a tree, and had 

 evidently not yet become aware of our proximity. 



Telling all the men to sit down, I prepared to shoot him, for I could see he had a 

 fine pair of horns. 



As there was no ant-heap handy I had to do the best I could by keeping trees 

 and bushes between us as I crawled nearer. With some difficulty and backache I got 

 within one hundred yards, and found him still busy with his horn scraping. He 

 presented a facing shot, so I put a bullet into the base of his neck and he fell on 

 his head, but recovered his feet, and dashed about twenty yards, when* he came down 

 for good. At the sound of the shot I was surprised to see another kudu ri.se close to 

 the place where the first had been standing, and run off. I fired and missed him, and 

 he ran into some long, partially-burnt grass. I now saw that he had a splendid, 

 wide-set pair of horns. 



I waited for him to stand, as I felt sure he would, to wait for his comrade. 

 This is just what he did after running a short distance, and I at once fired and heard 

 the bullet tell. Instead of killing him, however, the bullet wound seemed to give him 

 fresh energy, and he started away again ; and to get within range I had to run after 

 him, giving my bad foot some very nasty bumps on stones and snags. His faithfulness 

 to his fellow proved his undoing, for he stood again ; and I gave him another bullet, 

 which finished him. 



Before going up to him I had to sit down and remove my boot. After that I 

 hobbled up and sat on a stump, filled my pipe, and spent half-an-hour in admiring 

 him. His head seemed to be a beauty ; for I had never seen such a spread, and I 

 wondered how he managed to manoeuvre his way through the thick bush with such 

 a headpiece. 



This head (i) belonged to a younger beast than the head given as (3), 

 the first shot, and I believe it would have grown considerably in the course of a few 

 years. After one has examined a great number of game heads there is little difficulty 

 in judging the age of a pair of horns. The formation or texture of the horn in a 

 young beast has not the hard, solid look of the older horns, and when very young the 

 horns have a shaly appearance. The older the animal is the more rubbed will the 

 horns be, and, in beasts suffering from old age, the horns are sometimes chipped, 

 gnarled, and broken. 



The head given as (2) I shot while on the way to Tete. One damp, rainy day I 

 was walking ahead of my carriers when a herd of animals broke away to the right of 

 the path, and the man carrying the rifle said they were eland. A glance, however. 



