BUFFON'S KOB 213 



a decent head ; but when lying down, unless they have made the 

 mistake of lying close to a patch of bush, it is almost useless to try to 

 get a head. They lie, indeed, so close together that it is impossible 

 to single out a head from any distance beyond 100 yards ; and they 

 will not, at the best of times, suffer an approach nearer than 200 

 yards. A solitary buck or a pair may, however, frequently be met 

 with on the edge of the swamps ; and these give the best chance of 

 obtaining a head. The buck can be watched feeding along until he 

 gets into such a position as to give the sportsman a chance of creeping 

 up within shot, when the stalk can be carried out with little or no 

 difficulty. 



" The kob is not a very suspicious or wary animal, and what 

 suspicions it may have are somewhat easily allayed in the case of 

 single animals. More than once I have knelt in full view of a buck, 

 and by remaining absolutely rigid have so soothed its suspicions that 

 it has fed right up to within 50 yards and given an excellent shot. 

 I have also heard of a doe similarly feeding up to within I o yards of 

 a sportsman who knelt and remained immovable. 



" When alarmed and set going, the kob flies off at a leaping 

 gallop, springing over every little obstacle, such as a tuft of high grass, 

 with remarkable ease and much superabundant energy. It will clear 

 a height of six feet in a bound without apparent effort, and appears to 

 delight in the mere act of jumping. It gets through a tract of thick 

 dry jungle grass, 6 to 8 feet high, in a succession of leaps ; and there 

 are few prettier sights than that of a buck kob when alarmed traversing 

 such a bed. 



" The kob is also a good swimmer, and will not hesitate to cross 

 the Niger or Benue at their broadest parts, I to i^ miles, when 

 alarmed or desirous of changing its feeding-ground. It swims low 

 down in the water, the nostrils, eyes, ears, and horns being nearly all 

 that appears above the surface, and it gets through the water at the 

 rate of about six miles an hour. The flesh of a young buck kob is 

 decidedly palatable, and always an addition to the table of a hunting- 

 camp." 



Writing of the Uganda race, Mr. F. J. Jackson observes that, 

 although it was easy enough to detect these antelopes from a " rolling 

 hill-side, as they fed in the swampy hollows in the early morning, 

 when it came to descending the hill and plunging into the tall, thick, 

 and soaking-wet grass it was quite another thing, and was next to 

 impossible to locate them. Even if one struck the right spot the 

 noise made in forcing a way through the grass frightened them away 



