30 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



sportsman's task ridiculously easy and very uninteresting. For instead of being 

 compelled to continually ferret out fresh grazing grounds and drinking places he 

 contents himself with returning again and again to the same old places. Instead 

 of having to learn by hard experience the habits and peculiarities of his game, 

 and to change camp every day, and hunt from morning till night, the East African 

 sportsman goes out for a short morning's stroll, returns to lunch, and spends most of 

 the afternoon in bed. However, there are some kind of game which it is always 

 difficult to bring to bag, and even in East Africa these do not entirely lose their 

 cunning. They are recommended to the attention of those sportsmen who would 

 be something more than mere shooters. 



The local habits of the plain-dwelling game are not without effect on the 

 carnivorous animals. For these carnivora things are made absurdly simple. A lair 

 near a much-used water-hole and their food supply is assured. It is no matter for 

 surprise, then, that they also are not up to the same standard of cunning and guile 

 as the harder-working bush carnivora. 



The last consideration under this heading is water. The greater part of the 

 country, owing to the great mountain ranges, is well watered, and so no special 

 adaptations in the manner of the living of its occupants is necessary. In the 

 great waterless tracts towards Lake Rudolf and in the Taru Desert near the coast, 

 however, special types of animals are required to go either for long periods without 

 water or to do entirely without it. A certain amount of liquid sustenance is obtained 

 from dew and the chewing of aloes and fibres. The peculiar vegetations of such 

 regions must affect the types of game dwelling there. Such types are many of 

 the gazelles, oryx, dik-diks, and others. 



(iii.) Kind of Country. 



The different kinds of country generally met with might be divided into : — 



Bare and rocky mountains or hills. 



Open plains. 



Bush. 



Swamps. 



Thick forests. 



Game is found in different parts of the world specially equipped by Nature 

 for life in any one of these kinds of country. 



Then, there are also animals which can live in two or more of these countries, 

 and others which pass from one to the other. By this I mean that there are animals 

 which can live equally well in two or more kinds of country, but it is not necessary 



