With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



have thriven at one time in more northern regions. The 

 animal-cult of the Egyptians may well have influenced 

 the Masai for a time. 



There is nothing attractive about giraffes, so far as 

 we know them from pictures, or from having seen them 

 in captivity. But it is quite otherwise with them as met 

 with in the wilderness. Zebras, leopards, and giraffes 

 are so strikingly coloured that one would expect to find 

 them conspicuous figures in their own haunts. But, as I 

 have already remarked, these three kinds of animals 

 have really a special protection in their colouring. It 

 harmonises so perfectly with their surroundings that they 

 are blended in the background, so to speak, and can 

 easily be overlooked. It must be explained that one 

 does not often see the animals close at hand. In certain 

 lights, indeed, according to the position of the sun, zebras, 

 leopards, and giraffes are so merged in the. harmony of 

 their surroundings that even when they are quite near 

 the eye of man can easily be deceived. It is not only 

 in the very dry season, when the plant-world stretches 

 out before us in every hue from dirty brown to bright 

 gold, that the giraffe harmonises with its surroundings in 

 this way ; you sometimes cannot distinguish its outline 

 when backed by the green boughs of the trees in the 

 shade. 



The colouring of giraffes varies very much, even in 

 the same herd. I have seen herds of forty-five or more 

 heads, and from close quarters I have ascertained that 

 some were striped quite darkly and some very lightly. 

 All bulls are coloured more or less darkly. 



