ZEBRAS MOTIONLESS IN THE BUSH. 159 



of his black and white striped skin. But Professor 

 Drummond says, 



" Its effect in nature is just the opposite; and at close 

 quarters is as bars of light seen through the branches of 

 shrubs. I have found myself (he says) in the forest, gazing 

 at what I supposed to be a solitary zebra; its presence 

 betrayed by some motion due to my approach, and suddenly 

 realized that I was surrounded by an entire herd, which 

 were all invisible until they moved." * 



Sportsmen in Hindustan unanimously speak in similar 

 terms of the difficulty there often is, of making out the 

 striped form of a tiger crouching in the Indian jungle. 



From America the same story reaches us, as regards 

 the experiences of sportsmen concerning the great game 

 inhabiting the forests there. Colonel Dodge, U.S.A., 

 speaking of the elk for instance, informs us that 



" For doubling, dodging, and hiding, this huge animal is, 

 considering his bulk, far superior to the hare, or even the 

 fox; and the facility with which he will squat, and conceal 

 himself in the slightest possible cover, is really most remark- 

 able." "The elk going through timber sticks his nose in the 

 air, and throwing back the points of his huge antlers on each 

 side of his body, makes about as good time as if in the 

 open. When pursued the elk takes instinctively to the very 

 worst ground." f 



Animals of the deer tribe, of all kinds, when alarmed, 

 we may state as a rule, generally do this and make for 

 the thickest coverts, or the most inaccessible crags in 

 the mountains while those of the antelope tribe, on 



* Tropical Africa, by Professor H. Drummond, F.R.S., 1888. 

 (N.B. The Professor is here speaking of the open bush forest that 

 covers so much of tropical Africa, and not of the denser forest of the 

 equatorial regions). 



y The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Lt.-Col. R. I. Dodge, 

 U.S.A., 1877. 



