152 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



tage in combat ; but at last his career of victory was cut 

 short by a lion. Waterbuck cows are very watchful and 

 wary, though the bulls are usually rather slow of appre- 

 hension, in my experience. The calves are at first of a 

 reddish colour. 



Once about the beginning of March I was riding through 

 the bush, when a little waterbuck calf rose from the 

 " form " where it had been left by its mother, and came 

 trotting up to the horse. It betrayed practically no 

 nervousness when I dismounted, and stretched out its 

 nose to touch my extended finger. After a time the 

 mother appeared upon the scene and trotted round and 

 round with every appearance of anxiety for her offspring, 

 sometimes making as if she would approach close up, 

 when, her natural fears momentarily proving too much 

 for her, she would spring away out of sight. When at 

 last her errant offspring saw fit to join her, she lost no 

 time in taking him out of the way of further adventure. 



Although wild dogs, leopards and chitas hunt and kill 

 the females, calves, and half-grown males of waterbuck, 

 the adult bulls are seldom attacked, so far as our expe- 

 rience in the Reserve goes, by any natural enemies except 

 lions. A ranger records an experience of a bull charging 

 two chitas, which had pulled down a calf. 



Natives in the eastern Transvaal have sometimes 

 pointed out that there are two different types of water- 

 buck ; and no doubt some herds are uniformly darker 

 in colour, and I think larger in size, than the majority, 

 which appear of a sandy-grey hue. This variety seems 

 dependent on the haunts of the animal, the waterbucks 

 on the Lebombo Hills belonging to the former category, 

 and most, though not all, of the flat country ones to the 

 latter. 



Waterbuck are grass feeders. The meat is rather 



