THE RHINOCEROS 259 



it to be a cow, so I sat down in the grass, as there was no other 

 covert, and waited until she walked under a small thorn -tree 

 about half a mile off. Under the shade of this tree the grass 

 was considerably longer ; she soon lay down, and I walked 

 straight up to within about 200 yards, when she got up, obliging 

 me and my gun-bearer to drop down into the grass and lie 

 still till she again lay down. 



Although she had no birds on her back, she appeared rest- 

 less, and kept raising her head, which I attributed to the fact 

 that she was dead to leeward of the other two rhinos, some 

 quarter of a mile off, and as she was almost facing us, we 

 lay still to give her time to settle down and go to sleep. 

 I was particularly anxious to make sure of her, as she had the 

 best horn I had seen up to that time. As the grass was some 

 1 8 ins. long, though there was not a particle of other covert, we 

 crawled forward on hands and knees and had little difficulty 

 in getting within 100 yards of her, when we took a short rest, 

 as grovelling through the grass was hot work. We then crawled 

 on, flat on our stomachs, and when within about 50 yards 

 I raised my head, saw that some 20 yards further on there was 

 a tuft of slightly longer grass, and determined to get up to 

 this before firing. However, just before we reached it, some 

 half-dozen birds came from the direction of the other two rhinos, 

 and settled on our cow's back, but we eventually succeeded in 

 reaching the tuft. The difficulty now was to get into a sitting 

 position and ready to shoot without being seen by the birds. 

 To do this I worked my legs towards the rhino as I lay on 

 my side, and gradually raised myself into a sitting position, but 

 at that instant the birds saw me, and flew up with their usual 

 cry of alarm. At the same moment the rhino raised herself on her 

 forelegs like a huge pig, and I then realised that I was nearer 

 than I intended to get, only about 20 yards separating us, but 

 she did not appear to see me. As she remained sitting in this 

 position, without moving my body, which. I knew might attract 

 attention, I stretched out my arm behind me for the 4-bore, 

 but did not feel it at first, and thought that for once my faithful 



