GREAT HERDS OF GAME ON BARREN PLAINS. 323 



of the world are mostly dry, barren, inhospitable plains. 

 It is in such localities that almost all the heavy game 

 quadrupeds have their home. The popular idea, that 

 large animals require luxuriant pasturage is, according 

 to the high authority of Mr. Darwin, entirely falla- 

 cious. The reasons why these things should be so 

 would involve the consideration of a host of technicalities, 

 which will be discussed in their proper place, in our 

 "sporting" sections. * 



Almost the whole of this class of country, however, 

 in the dry season, in consequence of the drought, 

 assumes a peculiar yellowish brown tint, so far as the 

 grass is concerned, which is reduced to the condition 

 of a species of natural hay ; whilst the twigs and bark 

 of the withered, stunted bush are everywhere pervaded 

 by an equally peculiar sombre shade of dusky dun, 

 or ashen colour. In East Central Africa there are 

 many thousands of square miles of this class of country : 

 " of " (according to Professor Drummond) " vast thin 

 forest, shadeless, trackless, voiceless forest in mountain, 

 and forest in plain this " (he says) " is East Central 

 Africa." f There are vast areas of similar land in 

 South Africa also. 



Hence we find that Nature has in many cases 

 closely assimilated the colour of the hides of animals 

 and the plumage of birds, to match the peculiar dull, 

 dusky hue of the surrounding bush. The elephant, 

 the rhinoceros, the Indian and African buffalo, the 

 wild boar, etc., furnish good examples of this species 



* See our chapters on Hunting and Stalking on Plains, and Forest 

 and Jungle Shooting in vol. iii. 



f Tropical Africa, by Professor Henry Drummond, 1888, p. 53. 

 N.B. This country almost all lies 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea 

 level, which accounts for the absence of heavy forest. 



