4 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



it, and should have killed it in another second, when 

 suddenly the harsh "tcha, tcha" of the rhinoceros-bird 

 broke the silence, and as my eye followed the sound it 

 rested on the massive grey head of an enormous old 

 buffalo bull, which, the remainder of its body concealed 

 by a bush, was standing looking about him some two 

 hundred yards off, probably wondering what had caused 

 the bird, which from its elevated position had no doubt 

 seen me, to utter the warning cry, which, for that day 

 at least, had saved the water-antelope's life. 



In a few minutes he walked out into the open, and 

 commenced feeding, enabling me to see that I had to 

 deal with an old " rogue," or solitary bull, of no common 

 size or age. His immense horns, which from the eye to 

 the back of the head formed a solid rugged mass, impene- 

 trable to bullets, were so worn down at the ends that 

 their natural curve had almost disappeared, and they 

 now stood out nearly at right angles from his forehead. 

 His skin, never very thickly covered with the dark brown 

 hair that clothes these animals, had become through age 

 perfectly nude, and was of a shiny slate colour, except 

 where a remaining fringe formed a black line along his 

 withers and back. His immense neck, rivalling that of 

 the elephant in thickness, so took off from the size of his 

 head, that by comparison it seemed quite small, while the 

 roundness of his great carcase proved him to be in the 

 highest condition. A flock of upwards of a dozen of the 

 red-beaked rhinoceros-birds were seated all over him, some 

 contentedly on his forehead and horns, others running 

 about with their quick starling-like movement in search 

 of the great grass-ticks on which they live. 



