396 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



first on all-fours and then flat on the ground, which re- 

 sulted in my getting a good off-hand shot at a hundred and 

 eighty yards. At this time, about the middle of November, 

 some of the cows had new-born calves. One day I shot a 

 hartebeest bull, with horns twenty-four inches long, as it 

 stood on the top of an ant-heap. On going up to it we 

 noticed something behind a little bush, sixty yards off. 

 We were puzzled what it could be, but finally made out a 

 waterbuck cow; and a minute or two later away she bounded 

 to safety, followed by a wee calf. The porters much ap- 

 preciated the flesh of the waterbuck. We did not. It is the 

 poorest eating of African antelope and among the big 

 antelope only the eland is good as a steady diet. 



One day we drove a big swamp, putting a hundred por- 

 ters across it in line, while Kermit and I walked a little 

 ahead of them along the edges, he on one side and I on the 

 other. I shot a couple of bushbuck, a ewe and a young 

 ram; and after the drive was over he shot a female leopard 

 as she stood on the side of an ant-hill. 



There were a number of both reedbuck and bushbuck 

 in the swamp. The reedbuck were all ewes, which we did 

 not want. There were one or two big bushbuck rams, but 

 they broke back through the beaters; and so did two 

 bushbuck ewes and one reedbuck ewe, one of the bushbuck 

 ewes actually knocking down a beater. They usually 

 either cleared out while the beaters were still half a mile 

 distant, or else waited until they were almost trodden on. 

 The bushbuck rams were very dark colored; the hornless 

 ewes, and the young, were a brilliant red, the belly, the 

 under side and edges of the conspicuous fluffy tail, and a 

 few dim spots on the cheeks and flanks, being white. Al- 

 though these buck frequent thick cover, forest, or swamp, 

 and trust for their safety to hiding, and to eluding observa- 

 tion by their stealthy, skulking ways, their coloration has not 

 the smallest protective value, being on the contrary very 

 conspicuous in both sexes, but especially in the females and 

 young, who most need protection. Bushbuck utter a loud 



