xxix ANIMALS OF THE BACK BLOCKS 293 



horns, though with the reticulata they are more marked. 

 This fact is not very generally known, and indeed one 

 sportsman who camped within sight of a farmhouse, 

 and shot a practically tame giraffe thereon, wrote to the 

 Field newspaper and claimed that the results of his 

 prowess in unexploited portions of Darkest Africa had 

 resulted in the discovery of a new species of giraffe, 

 as instanced by the fact that it possessed five rudi- 

 mentary horns ! There seems to be no reason why 

 giraffe should not yet wander for centuries over certain 

 portions of the Protectorate. 



The Situtunga, or Spekes Tragelopkus, is a very 

 curious, swamp-inhabiting animal. He spends the 

 bulk of his time in large papyrus swamps either swim- 

 ming or clambering from tussock to tussock. He is 

 provided with curiously elongated hoofs, which serve 

 him both as paddles and give him a precarious footing 

 on boggy surfaces. He is found in all the swamps 

 which fringe Lake Victoria, and has also been shot by 

 Mr. Philip Percival in a swamp on the Uasin Guishu 

 plateau. Possibly they are far more widely distributed 

 than we know at present. Even where common they 

 are difficult to obtain, since they are very reluctant to 

 leave their fastnesses. The best method to get a shot 

 at a specimen is as follows. Finding a swamp which 

 they are known to frequent, select any projecting 

 arm which has any narrow passage leading to the 

 main portion. Here cut the papyrus down, leaving 

 a gap between the two banks of, say, 30 or 40 

 yards. Station native hunters will each morning 

 examine the passage till they report the spoor of a 

 bull entering the arm which is cut off by the gap and 

 not returning. The animal is then located and when 

 driven must return across the open space which has been 



