4 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



plains-folk with interest. Wherever animals new to me are to be met with, I make a 

 point of studying their habits and peculiarities. This is a never-failing source of 

 interest, and where the actual shooting may be tame and uninteresting the study of 

 animal life is never without charm. 



Besides "shooting," however, there is also good "hunting" to be had in East 

 Africa, and this is the more interesting as all the sportsmen go for the plains and 

 leave any animals difficult to bag severely alone. 



Hunting and tracking game difficult to bag is still a sport which appeals to me 

 as much as ever. So, although I would not leave the path to shoot a plain-dweller, 

 unless he is very necessary for the pot, I am always willing to go far in search of some 

 shy and wary denizens of the bush and forest. Such animals as still have an interest 

 for me, from the sportsman's point of view, are the elephant, lion, buffalo, the kudus, 

 the bongo, and a few others. 



Having referred to the former animals as common, It may be inferred that these 

 latter are very rare animals, and that I am doing my best, amongst others, to hasten 

 their extinction. I have referred to the plain-dwellers as common chiefly because they 

 are the commonly seen and commonly shot animals. As such most of them will, in all 

 probability, be the first to become exterminated. These others are all so difficult to 

 get that their death-roll is comparatively small, and, owing to the difficulty attending 

 the hunting, shooting, and locating of them, they are generally given credit for being 

 much rarer than they really are. 



In point of fact, there are great numbers of these animals in East Africa, with 

 the exception, perhaps, of the greater kudu. Even he, I believe, is considerably more 

 numerous than is generally supposed. 



I might have added bushbuck to this list, if it had not been that on 

 several occasions I have found him quite easily. Having shot several, 

 I do not consider that he justifies any further execution, unless I am actually 

 in quest of provisions. He is, however, as a rule, although very common, 

 exceedingly hard to obtain, and so is quite worthy of being hunted by those who 

 have not shot many. 



In these days of short shooting trips, when countless parties come out to this 

 country with vast batteries of rifles and boxes of ammunition and shoot more heads 

 of common animals in a few months than I have done in as many years of constant 

 trek, it might seem unnecessary to try to justify myself for shooting at all. Owing 

 to the wholesale slaughter of harmless animals indulged in by such people, many 

 critics are nowadays apt to regard all forms of big-game shooting as iniquitous and 

 unsporting. So it may serve to whitewash the character of true sportsmen to 



