320 ANTELOPES 



and carpeted with twigs and rotten branches, which make such a noise 

 when trodden on that the bongo has timely warning of the approach 

 of any intruder and makes off. Even the native hunters, whose home 

 is in the forest, are unable to shoot it, though they can catch it in 

 game-pits and traps. I have been unable to find any proof that it 

 has ever been shot by the Wandorobo, as has sometimes been asserted ; 

 in fact, the Wandorobo themselves have told me that it is impossible 

 to do so. These forests are generally at an altitude of about 7000 

 feet above sea-level, and are cold, misty, and damp. Under-foot the 

 ground consists of soft black earth, into which the footprint sinks 

 deeply, and everywhere it is matted with undergrowth. The other 

 denizens of the forest are leopards, the forest -hog, a few bushpig, 

 bushbuck, and dik-dik, and numbers of monkeys belonging to the 

 genera Colobus and CercopitJiecus. In early morning the croaking of 

 the guereza monkey is uttered, answered, and echoed from all round the 

 forest, dying away in the distance, until the stillness is again broken 

 by a sudden crashing among branches overhead, as, forcing one's way 

 along the old track of bongo or forest-hog, one disturbs a troop of the 

 aforesaid monkeys. 



" Night is the time during which all the forest -animals, except 

 the birds, are on the move, and then many strange sounds may be 

 heard from its dark depths, while the trilling of the hyraxes is con- 

 tinuous the whole night long. This is the haunt of the bongo, the 

 shyest and least visible of all the denizens, though the spoor of its 

 nocturnal rambles may be everywhere seen, for it feeds only at night, 

 early morning, or late evening, while it lies down during the day ; and 

 it is for this reason that it is so difficult to surprise. The wind, 

 moreover, is very treacherous in the forest, although one would imagine 

 there could be none, and this gives the animal additional opportunities 

 of detecting an enemy. 



" The spoor is eland-like in shape, and, like the eland, the bongo 

 has a habit of walking forward on the toes, only to a much more 

 marked degree ; in fact, the spoor is not so very different from that 

 of the ordinary native cattle, except for the great depth to which the 

 toes sink. This is all the more noticeable on account of the softness 

 of the soil, in which the fore part of the foot sinks in to the depth 

 of 2 or 3 inches, while the rear edge of the spoor slopes up to 

 ground-level. 



" There is a wonderful resemblance between the spoor of species 

 belonging to the same group ; so much so that if animals were 

 classified by the similarity of their spoor we should probably be not 



