16 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



of the ridge, but as it could not get their wind did 

 not take alarm. 



Of course, if I had made the very slightest 

 movement, this waterbuck would have seen me 

 instantly ; but had it possessed much sense of colour, 

 the contrast between the red brown of my sunburnt 

 arms and face and the light-coloured shirt I was 

 wearing would have attracted its attention, as I 

 was sitting on a stone, on the top of a ridge which 

 was quite free from trees or bush. I have never 

 had any other African antelopes pass so close to me 

 as this without seeing me, but many have fed slowly 

 past me, as I sat watching them, with a tree or a 

 bush behind me but nothing between myself and 

 them, at distances of from 20 to 50 yards. 



Both in Newfoundland and in the Yukon Territory 

 of Canada, I have had caribou walk almost over me 

 when sitting in front of them on their line of march 

 on ground devoid of any cover whatever. In such 

 cases, of course, the wind was blowing from these 

 animals towards where I was sitting, and I remained 

 absolutely motionless. 



As a rule, when wild animals notice something 

 suspicious approaching, say a man on horseback, 

 and cannot get the scent of it, they run off before it 

 gets near them or circle round to try and get the 

 wind of it. But the smaller African antelopes, 

 steinbucks, duikers, oribis, and reedbucks will 

 occasionally, while keeping their eyes fixed on the 

 unfamiliar object, crouch slowly down, and then, 

 with their necks stretched along the ground, lie 

 watching. I have ridden past a few oribis, stein- 

 bucks, and reedbucks within a few yards, as they 

 lay absolutely motionless on the ground watching 

 me. To pull in one's horse with the intention of 

 shooting such a crouching antelope was the instant 

 signal for it to jump up and bound away. Lions 

 too, when they see a human being and imagine 



