08 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



nowadays he can only exist at all in regions that have lagged 

 behind, while the rest of the world, for good or for evil, has 

 gone forward. Like other beasts, rhinos differ in habits in 

 different places. This prehensile-lipped species is every- 

 where a browser, feeding on the twigs and leaves of the 

 bushes and low trees; but in their stomachs I have found 

 long grass stems mixed with the twig tips and leaves of 

 stunted bush. In some regions they live entirely in rather 

 thick bush; whereas on the plains over which we were 

 hunting the animals haunted the open by preference, feed- 

 ing through thin bush, where they were visible miles away, 

 and usually taking their rest, either standing or lying, out 

 on the absolutely bare plains. They drank at the small 

 shallow rain pools, seemingly once every twenty-four 

 hours; and I saw one going to water at noon, and others 

 just at dark; and their hours for feeding and resting were 

 also irregular, though they were apt to lie down or stand 

 motionless during the middle of the day. Doubtless in 

 very hot weather they prefer to rest under a tree; but we 

 were hunting in cool weather, during which they paid no 

 heed whatever to the sun. Their sight is very bad, their 

 scent and hearing acute. 



On this day Kermit was shooting from his left shoulder, 

 and did very well, killing a fine Roberts' gazelle, and three 

 topi; I also shot a topi bull, as Heller wished a good series 

 for the National Museum. The topi and wildebeest I shot 

 were all killed at long range, the average distance for the 

 first shot being over three hundred and fifty yards; and in 

 the Sotik, where hunters were few, the game seemed if any- 

 thing shyer than on the Athi Plains, where hunters were 

 many. But there were wide and inexplicable differences 

 in this respect among the animals of the same species. One 

 day I wished to get a doe tommy for the museum; I saw 

 scores, but they were all too shy to let me approach within 

 shot; yet four times I passed within eighty yards of bucks 

 of the same species which paid hardly any heed to me. 

 Another time I walked for five minutes alongside a big 



