ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH 



61 



pounds; a very old bull, with horns much worn down 

 299; and a cow in high condition 315. 



The Grant's gazelle is the most beautiful of all these 

 plains creatures; it is about the size of a big white-tail deer; 

 one heavy buck which I shot, although with poor horns, 

 weighed 171 pounds. The finest among the old bucks have 

 beautiful lyre-shaped horns, over two feet long, and their 



Vulture raven or white-necked raven 

 From a photograph by J. A 'den Loring 



proud, graceful carriage and lightness of movement render 

 them a delight to the eye. As I have already said, the 

 young and the females have the dark side stripe which 

 marks all the tommies; but the old bucks lack this, and 

 their color fades into the brown or sandy of the dry plains 

 far more completely than is the case with zebra or kongoni. 

 Like the other game of the plains they are sometimes found 

 in small parties, or else in fair-sized herds, by themselves, 

 and sometimes with other beasts; I have seen a single fine 

 buck in a herd of several hundred zebra and kongoni. The 

 Thomson's gazelles, hardly a third the weight of their 



