64 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



marabou storks, gathered before the skinners were through 

 with their work; they usually stayed at a wary distance, 

 but the handsome ravens, glossy-hued with white napes, 

 big-billed, long-winged, and short-tailed, came round more 

 familiarly. 



I rarely had to take the trouble to stalk anything; the 

 shooting was necessarily at rather long range, but by ma- 

 noeuvring a little, and never walking straight toward a beast, 

 I was usually able to get whatever the naturalists wished. 

 Sometimes I shot fairly well, and sometimes badly. On 

 one day, for instance, the entry in my diary ran: ''Missed 

 steinbuck, pig, impalla and Grant; awful." On another 

 day it ran in part as follows: "Out with Heller. Harte- 

 beest, 250 yards, facing me; shot through face, broke neck. 

 Zebra, very large, quartering, 160 yards, between neck 

 and shoulder. Buck Grant, 220 yards, walking, behind 

 shoulder. Steinbuck, 180 yards, standing, behind shoulder." 

 Generally each head of game bagged cost me a goodly 

 number of bullets; but only twice did I wound animals 

 which I failed to get; in the other cases the extra cartridges 

 represented either misses at animals which got clean away 

 untouched, or else a running fusillade at wounded animals 

 which I eventually got. I am a very strong believer in 

 making sure, and, therefore, in shooting at a wounded ani- 

 mal as long as there is the least chance of its getting off. 

 The expenditure of a few cartridges is of no consequence 

 whatever compared to the escape of a single head of game 

 which should have been bagged. Shooting at long range 

 necessitates much running. Some of my successful shots at 

 Grant's gazelle and kongoni were made at 300, 350, and 

 400 yards; but at such distances my proportion of misses 

 was very large indeed and there were altogether too many 

 even at shorter ranges. 



The so-called grass antelopes, the steinbuck and duiker, 

 were the ones at which I shot worst; they were quite plen- 

 tiful, and they got up close, seeking to escape observation 

 by hiding until the last moment; but they were small, and 



