LAST DAYS ON THE SERENGETTI 277 



before they would pounce upon liim. On the near-by 

 trees solemn looking vultures surveyed the scene, 

 probably estimating their chances of securing part 

 of the feast. IVIike turned to me and exclaimed, 

 "The poor devil!" and while he was putting this 

 suffering animal out of his misery, I turned my atten- 

 tion to the hyenas. They were a little too close to 

 come witliin the golf rules, but, in chasing them away, 

 two of the bunch were accidentally killed. 



Now we started back to camp, but had not gone 

 far when Maniki pointed out a water buck bull stand- 

 ing under some trees. I was very keen to secure 

 another of these graceful animals for a trophy, so 

 made a careful stalk and landed him with the third 

 bullet. After Maniki had skinned out the head, we 

 continued on our way, eventually coming into a small 

 valley where forty-five giraffe were having a family 

 reunion. The hght was bad, but we decided to try 

 to obtain a few scenes of this large herd and spent 

 over two hours with them. During this time we 

 noticed that the giraffe would not cross a certain 

 donga; nor would they approach very close to it. 

 This excited our curiosity, for experience told us 

 there must be a Hon or leopard hidden in the brush. 

 Mike and I walked through the donga, finding the grass 

 so high that it was necessary to carry our rifles at 

 arm's reach above our heads to prevent seeds from 

 getting into the actions. The donga proved only a 

 few yards wide and upon stepping out on the other 

 side, we found ourselves face to face with three Hons. 



The males and the honess eyed us for a few seconds, 

 during which we reahzed what a tickhsh situation 

 we had walked into. Both of us carried our hghtest 



