394 LARGE GAME. CHAP. VIIL 



well-trodden path, or a shrub bearing their favourite 

 berries, to sit and watch for them a few yards off. You 

 need not even be concealed if you remain perfectly still, 

 as all bush antelopes seem to possess curiosity to such a 

 degree that even after noticing you and making their 

 shrill whistle of questioning fear, they will come nearer 

 and nearer if you do not move, until you could almost 

 touch them with your gun. This is more remarkably 

 noticeable with the red buck already mentioned, which 

 has actually walked up to within a yard of me, and stood 

 staring and stamping its foot, seemingly unable to make 

 out whether I was a stump or what. Of course, the wind 

 has much to do with it, and the eddies caused by the 

 trees, especially if there be but a slight breeze, render it 

 exceedingly difficult to choose the best position to lie in 

 wait in. 



It has often struck me what capital sport might be 

 had among these tiny antelopes with a few couple of 

 beagles, and what a pretty sight it would be to watch 

 them hunting their quarry round and round in the circle 

 it would be sure to take. I have many times seen them 

 hunted with packs of Kaffir dogs, but on no occasion did 



-I O ' 



they break cover, unless for a few yards on their way into 

 another jungle, their small size enabling them with ease 

 to twist and double in and out of what to their pursuers 

 are almost impenetrable thickets, thus rendering it their 

 principal object to retain the shelter of the jungle. Many 

 of these, in which pete abound, are not more than six or 

 eight acres in extent, and therefore two or three people 

 stationed inside would see the greater part of the run, 

 even if, as in many places would be possible, they could 



