TO THE UASIN GISHU 387 



yards they face the hunter, the forward-thrown ears be- 

 ing the most noticeable thing about them. We found that 

 each oribi bagged cost us an unpleasantly large number of 

 cartridges. 



One day we found where a large party of hyenas had 

 established their day lairs in the wet seclusion of some reed- 



A hyena by flashlight 

 From a photograph by J. Alden Loring 



beds. We beat through these reedbeds, and, in the words 

 once used by an old plains friend in describing the be- 

 havior of a family of black bears under similar circum- 

 stances, the hyenas "came bilin' out." As they bolted 

 Kermit shot one and I another; his bit savagely at a stick 

 with which one of the gun-bearers poked it. It is difficult 

 at first glance to tell the sex of a hyena, and our followers 

 stoutly upheld the wide-spread African belief that they are 

 bi-sexual, being male or female as they choose. A wounded 

 or trapped hyena will of course bite if seized, but shows 

 no sign of the ferocious courage which marks the leopard 

 under such circumstances; for the hyena is as cowardly 



