THE AFRICAN HUNTING DOG 109 



from the same direction, namely from the west, have 

 hunted down the Mutshidaka Spruit to the Sabi, and 

 then, in the dry season, along that river for some forty 

 miles to the Lebombo, whence they have turned south 

 towards the Crocodile. In the summer they cross the 

 Selati Railway, and work the series of small tributaries 

 which run into the Sabi from the south ; eventually 

 reaching the Crocodile system, and so back towards the 

 west. 



I speak, of course, of the movements of the main body ; 

 but so far does the chase sometimes lead, that individuals 

 and small parties may be separated from the majority 

 of the pack for many days and even weeks, and therefore 

 may be encountered in all sorts of unexpected places. 

 I remember, while the bulk of the southern pack was 

 near Sabi Bridge, four stragglers ran into and killed a 

 duiker by my camp twelve miles up the Sabi. The 

 movements of the troop north of that river are more 

 difficult to follow, both because the area is much larger 

 and because the animals disappear into Portuguese 

 territory, sometimes for months at a stretch ; but records 

 have been kept as far as possible, and, so far as they go, 

 they show a fairly regular method of progression. 

 Naturally, as game increases, so Hunting Dogs, unless 

 artificially kept down, will tend to become more numerous, 

 and small detached parties, finding themselves in a well- 

 stocked country, may become the nucleus of a fresh pack. 

 Of this there was an example just north of the Sabi, where 

 a small troop from the northern pack, broken off in the 

 course of some long hunt, more or less took possession 

 for some time of an area of thirty or forty miles of 

 country. 



Few wild beasts display more sagacity in pursuit of 

 prey than this one. Watch a pack in the grey morning 



