242 ANTELOPES 



stamping feet, made a great din with their loud snorts, till the report 

 of my rifle, and the hoarse growling of the leopard as it rolled over in 

 its death-throes, sent them flying on winged feet in all directions." 



The following account of the pala in British East Africa is abbrevi- 

 ated from one furnished by Mr. A. H. Neumann : 



" The species has a wide range in East Central Africa, but its dis- 

 tribution is patchy, and it occurs only here and there in localities where 

 conditions are favourable to its habits. Those conditions commonly 

 are fairly dense bush or scrub to which to retreat when disturbed, or 

 to lie-up in during the hottest part of the day, ' park-like ' tracts or 

 open glades in which to feed, and water within reach. It is nowhere 

 found in anything approaching the numbers that were formerly seen 

 in some parts of south-east Africa, where immense herds were common, 

 and where, as the natives used graphically to express it, the whole bush 

 would sometimes become red with them ; neither, so far as I know, 

 does it occur continuously over any wide extent of country. In small 

 parties, or herds, of from ten, twenty, thirty, to forty or perhaps fifty, 

 but rarely, I think, more, it is, however, scattered here and there over 

 the country from within about 50 miles of the coast (as on the edge of 

 the Taru desert), through Masailand to the basin of the Victoria Nyanza 

 on the one hand, and on the other from the banks of the Sabaki and 

 the Tana to the neighbourhood of the Lorogi and Matthews ranges. 

 Its haunts in Central Africa are, for the most part, in almost untrodden 

 wilds, where there is no one to interfere with it ; and it is therefore 

 unlikely that it was ever more abundant than at the present day. It 

 is fairly common in the neighbourhood of the Guaso Nyira river, north 

 of Mount Kenia. 



" The impalas in this part of Africa generally have wider horns 

 than those from the south ; this, so far as I am aware, being the only 

 respect in which they differ from their southern brothers. Their colour 

 often matches so well with certain tree-stems or the ant-heaps 

 common in some parts, that it is easy for an unpractised eye to over- 

 look these antelopes when standing motionless in the bush. I have, 

 however, often wondered whether this ' protective colouring ' in such 

 animals is really of any practical value, as no experienced hunter is 

 deceived thereby. As a matter of fact, I have noticed that, although 

 one may at first sight mistake a stump for a buck, the converse error 

 is rarely if ever made. 



" When in high condition, the coat is wonderfully sleek and glossy ; 

 and a young doe is then less red in colour than usual, being more of a 

 brownish tint, almost approaching mouse-colour. 



