154 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



bushes, but I managed this by covering up the ears and 

 head with old sacking and newspapers. 



I spent some days trying to get hold of a good bull kudu,, 

 as there were several herds in the vicinity of Mausi Hill. 

 On one occasion I wounded a fine fellow with a quick 

 snapshot, but he escaped me, although I spent a long time 

 trying to find him. Another day I managed to stalk a very 

 wary herd and I saw the horns of a bull, but owing to the 

 position he held his head I could not tell whether they were 

 big or not. The shot I fired killed him and I was disgusted 

 to find that his head was a poor one, so I simply took the 

 headskin, and sent it and the skull to the Transvaal 

 Museum, as I thought it might prove interesting to students 

 of natural history to exemplify the formation of growth. 



To show how a collector may be robbed of his spoils I 

 shot a nice bull kudu when on a short trip to the Palombe 

 stream, and he had a very pretty head. It was almost 

 sundown when I got him and camp was a good three miles 

 off, near the stream, which was clear running and pure. I 

 managed by the help of two big fires to get his skin off 

 up to the neck, so I cut it off there and rolled it up in 

 a bundle and got home by 9 p.m., giving my legs some 

 nasty bumps when getting through the thorny bush by dull 

 moonlight. After cleaning my rifle and eating a good 

 dinner, I went to bed, seeing that the skin was put up in 

 the fork of a large tree beyond the reach of any prowling 

 hyaena that might pay the camp a visit. Next morning 

 I tackled the skin of the head, with the help of a Yao boy 

 named Marki, whom I had taught to skin well. My cook 

 then told me breakfast was ready, so I left Marki to go on 

 with it for the part he was busy on was easy, as the 

 ears had not yet been reached. When I was at breakfast 

 Marki appeared and said in a plaintive voice that he had 

 cut the skin of the neck, and on going over I found he had 

 made a big gash right through it, which quite spoilt it for 

 the purpose of setting up. His error cost me a very nice 

 specimen and a considerable sum of money, so I told him 

 he would be fined. 



