ANTELOPES 305 



Tana river in 1891, that many of these antelopes had fallen 

 victims to the cattle disease (anthrax), and that they found 

 several dead in the bush between the river and the northern 

 boundaries of Ukambani. These beautiful beasts are bush feeders. 

 They should be sought for in the early morning, and again in the 

 evening in the open bush which usually fringes thick bush, in 

 which they take up their quarters for the day. They are gene- 

 rally found in small parties of two or three does and a buck, 

 though, like the bush-buck, both single bucks and does are 

 often seen by themselves. At Merereni, in 1886, I witnessed 

 a fight between two bucks. On emerging from the bush I 

 suddenly came across them, and watched them for about a 

 quarter of an hour as they fought with great fury, in spite of 

 my being to windward of them, and not more than 400 yards 

 off at the time. They fought so furiously, and kept their 

 heads together so long, that I thought they had got their horns 

 locked together, and I attempted to take advantage of them 

 whilst in this position, and ran across the sandy open space 

 intervening between us, but before I got within range they 

 separated and bolted. The jumping powers of the lesser 

 kudu are simply marvellous. When I first went to Africa, I 

 kept a record of the length of the strides of the various 

 game-beasts when at full gallop, but unfortunately lost it, and 

 never took it up again. I remember, however, measuring the 

 jump of one of these beasts, which struck me at the time as 

 being very wonderful. She had been chased by a hyaena 

 along a narrow footpath in dense bush, In the middle of the 

 path there was a thick green bush about 5 ft. high, round 

 which the path took a turn, and then went straight on again. 

 The kudu had taken a flying leap over this bush, and the 

 distance between the spoor of her hind feet where she took off 

 and the edge of the bush was 15 ft. The diameter of the bush 

 was 6 ft., and the distance from the edge of the bush on the 

 further side to where she landed i.e. to the spoor marks of 

 her hind feet another 10 ft., in all 31 ft. The hyaena had 

 given up the chase some thirty yards further on, where the 

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