I5 8 GIRAFFES AMONG TREES. 



hunting elephants, might look down upon a herd, and fail 

 to detect their presence " 



and further in the case of the giraffe which is invari- 

 ably met with among forests where weatherbeaten 

 trunks and stems occur, he says, " I have even known 

 the natives to fail, mistaking these dilapidated trunks 

 for giraffes, and again confusing giraffes with these 

 aged veterans of the forest." * 



"As a rule (says Mr. H. A. Bryden, a more recent 

 authority), the giraffe is found in open bushy forest, and 

 when pursued invariably runs for the most thorny and 

 entangling portion. Its own thick hide, and great weight, 

 enables it easily to force a way through the densest obstacles, 

 which tear the horse and rider terribly." "Curious though it 

 may seem, the giraffe is extremely hard to find in a forest 

 country, even though a troop may be feeding with their 

 heads above bushes and low trees, within the vision of the 

 hunter. The long neck has a strange resemblance to the 

 trunks of dead trees, and the colouring of the animal assimilates 

 very wonderfully especially in winter, with the sun-scorched 

 vegetation, the yellow glare around, and the play of light 

 and shade through foliage." f 



Next as regards the African buffalo, the largest and 

 finest representative of the race, all experienced hunters 

 unite in saying that the dusky skins of these splendid 

 animals assimilate so wonderfully with the natural tints 

 of the bush, that it is often impossible to see them a 

 few yards away. Professor Drummond also tells us 

 an anecdote about the zebra, an animal which of all 

 others one would naturally think likely to be easily 

 distinguished, on account of the conspicuous pattern 



* Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of South Africa^ 

 by R. Gordon Gumming, 1843 to 1848, published 1850, Vol. i., p. 2/0. 



f Gun and Camera in South Africa, by H. A. Bryden, 1893, pp. 

 32930. 



