xxvi ANIMALS WHICH PROVIDE SPORT 257 



and is no real test of the merits of a head. Thus I saw 

 a head shot in 19 10 by Lord Wodehouse, which 

 officially measured 44 inches, but which was 13 inches 

 longer than a 50-inch head shot about the same time 

 had the two heads been measured in the same way 

 that antelopes' or goats' horns are measured. The 

 sportsman may be well satisfied with anything over 

 40 inches provided that they give evidence of belonging 

 to an old bull. To my mind there is no grander 

 trophy, and the old Adam dies so hard that I venture 

 to think that it must be some time yet before the 

 sentimental ideal is realised and we return as happy 

 with a mere photo obtained by the most skilful of stalks 

 as with the actual trophy. 



Buffalo are common in the following localities : 

 all thick bush along the coast in the neighbourhood 

 of water, the Tana, the South Guaso Nyero and Lake 

 Natron — here they exist in thousands but the general 

 average of heads is not very high, the Mau forest and 

 the Ithanga hills — which two places probably hold the 

 best heads of any, Lake Marsabit, the N'Gong hills, 

 the Aberdare mountains, and North Guaso Nyero 

 river. But these by no means exhaust the localities 

 where the animal may be found. 



Most of its haunts are such that it inflicts little if 

 any damage on the settler. There is one charge, 

 however, under which the buffalo is a suspected person. 

 He is vehemently accused, and as vehemently defended, 

 of the charge of bringing and being responsible for the 

 presence of the tsetse-fly (Glossina longipennis or 

 Glossina morsitans) so fatal to cattle or horses. It 

 has further been definitely proved within the last few 

 months that Glossina morsitans is capable of transmitting 

 sleeping sickness. Since enthusiasts on both sides wax 



s 



