348 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



and purposes a black bulk, and he is easily the most con- 

 spicuous of the lot. I don't think I ever failed to see a 

 wildebeeste not entirely concealed by cover, unless I hap- 

 pened to be careless. But wildebeeste belong on plains, prefer 

 plains, and are only lured into the bush occasionally by feed 

 or a wandering spirit. Eland were to me the next most 

 .conspicuous, less from their coloration than from their size. 

 They have occasionally proved rather hard to see, when 

 they stood motionless in shadow; just as is any neutral- 

 coloured animal in the same circumstances, but their trans- 

 verse stripes never had anything to do with it. Topi, on 

 the whole, are the next easiest to make out, but in certain 

 Hghts they are as invisible as zebra. We have all of us 

 missed seeing them time and again, at close range, toward 

 evening. An analysis of the situation disclosed these facts 

 concerning a normally conspicuous beast: the topi is a dark 

 animal, without countershading, with nearly black legs to 

 the knee, with buff "stockings," and dark pearl gray patches 

 on the rump and shoulders. The variations in tone, with 

 the exception of the buff stockings and buff face markings, 

 are very slight. Yet they were sufficient, at the proper 

 time of day, to break the monochrome and blend the animal 

 into the darker lights and shadows of its background. The 

 topi, in this new country, lived on both the plains and in 

 cover, with a preference for the latter. In British East 

 Africa he is more distinctly a plains beast, where — Hke the 

 zebra — he is visible as far as the eye can see. Hartebeeste 

 and impalla are countershaded beasts, and hardly come 

 into this discussion. In many circumstances their counter- 

 shading helps them to be overlooked in favour of more con- 



