58 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



times there will merely be one or two individuals of one 

 species in a big herd of the other. They are sometimes, 

 though less frequently than the hartebeest, found in open 

 bush country; but they live in the open plains by choice. 



I could not find out that they had fixed times for rest- 

 ing, feeding, and going to water. They and the harte- 

 beests formed the favorite prey of the numerous lions of 

 the neighborhood; and I believe that the nights, even 

 the moonlight nights, were passed by both animals under a 

 nervous strain of apprehension, ever dreading the attack 

 of their arch enemy, and stampeding from it. Their stam- 

 pedes cause the utmost exasperation to the settlers for 

 when in terror of the real or imaginary attack of a lion, 

 their mad, heedless rush takes them through a wire fence 

 as if it were made of twine and pasteboard. But a few 

 months before mv arrival a mixed herd of zebra and harte- 



j 



beest, stampeded either by lions or wild dogs, rushed 

 through the streets of Nairobi, several being killed by the 

 inhabitants, and one of the victims falling just outside the 

 Episcopal church. The zebras are nearly powerless \\hen 

 seized by lions; but they are bold creatures against less 

 formidable foes, trusting in their hoofs and their strong 

 jaws; they will, when in a herd, drive off hyena or wild 

 dogs, and will turn on hounds, if the hunter is not near. 

 If the lion is abroad in the daytime, they, as well as the 

 other game, seem to realize that he cannot run them down; 

 and though they follow his movements with great alertness, 

 and keep at a respectful distance, they show no panic. Or- 

 dinarily as I saw them, they did not seem very shy of men; 

 but in this respect all the game displayed the widest differ- 

 ences from time to time, without any real cause, that I could 

 discern, for the difference. At one hour, or on one day, the 

 zebra and hartebeest would flee from our approach when half 

 a mile off; and again they would permit us to come within 

 a couple of hundred yards before moving slowly away. On 

 two or three occasions at lunch herds of zebra remained for 

 half an hour watching us with much curiosity not over a hun- 



