90 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



madly away as often as not in a semicircle for twenty 

 or thirty yards, his tail up and his head down the rush 

 varied by occasional violent shies and swerves, as if he 

 were practising the evasion of some lurking enemy. 

 Then, with the same abruptness with which he set off, 

 he comes to a halt, his tail swishing. A shorter stare, 

 enlivened by a little pawing, curvetting, and many snorts, 

 is followed by another short dash a process repeated two 

 or three times when he generally makes off at a lumbering 

 canter until out of sight. Occasionally, when tame 

 through long immunity, wildebeests will actually follow 

 a man, especially a mounted one dashing up to and 

 past him at thirty or forty yards distance. They are 

 always, however, much bolder if they have not caught 

 his wind. 



The calves bleat much like those of domestic cattle 

 and like those of most other hoofed animals, are con- 

 cealed in bush or grass until strong enough to join the 

 herd. One day, as my ox- wagon' was nearing home, 

 a little wildebeest, not more than a day old, jumped out 

 of its form close by, and came running and bleating 

 towards the stolid oxen, evidently taking one of the 

 leaders for its mother. 



As bearing on the courage and pugnacity of brindled 

 gnu, an incident which occurred in the Game Reserve may 

 be worth relating. One of the rangers, while riding across 

 a wide plain which separates two streams, seven or eight 

 miles apart, came upon the dead body of a crocodile 

 about eight feet long. The carcass being very much 

 decomposed, it was of course impossible to tell the actual 

 cause of death ; but the ground all around was torn and 

 ploughed up by wildebeest, and, in the ranger's opinion, 

 they had either surprised the reptile on one of the over- 

 land night pilgrimages, which these creatures often make 



