142 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



of one member of a species, it is often possible from it to recognise that of another 

 member, even though you have never before seen it. For instance, the first time 

 I saw the spoor of the lesser kudu I had little difficulty in recognising to what species 

 it belonged because of its resemblance to that of the greater kudu. I felt so certain 

 of it that I asked a native what was the local name for the animal to which the spoor 

 belonged, and entered it at once in my notebook as the lesser kudu. This name 

 proved to be correct, but of course it was necessary to check it several times 

 afterwards, as must be done with all native names, for natives themselves are apt 

 to tell one wrong names, or names in a language other than that asked for. 



My first impression of a bongo spoor was, that it was something Hke an 

 eland's spoor with a touch of an enormous tragelaph about it. The bongo 

 has, in a very marked degree, the eland characteristic of walking on the forward 

 part of its hoofs, and its spoor has a resemblance to a cattle type of spoor, 

 to which type the eland belongs. Now, this is the exact position the bongo 

 takes in natural history classification, namely, midway between the elands and 

 tragelaphs. 



The reader will find a few of the principal classes of spoors given in plate 

 illustrations, reduced in size for purposes of comparison. The first class is an 

 illustration of the cat tribe. There is really very little difference in appearance 

 between the spoors of a lion, a leopard, a serval, and a cat. If any spoor of 

 this tribe is found, it can, as a rule, be easily attributed to the right animal by 

 a comparison of size ; though a cub lion's spoor might be confused with that 

 of a leopard, and a cub leopard's with that of a serval, and a cub serval's with 

 a bush-cat. In each case, though, it is probable that the young animal would 

 be accompanied by others and by the mother, which would afford a means of 

 distinguishing to which section it belonged. The serval's spoor would also be 

 distinguishable by the longer stride. The cheetah has a longer stride than either 

 the hyaena or the leopard, though the spoor bears a certain resemblance to both 

 of these. The bush-cat's spoor is smaller than the serval's, and the genet's is 

 still smaller, though resembling the bush-cat's. 



Comparing spoors, a member of the dog-like class can be told at once, 

 because of the clawmarks showing. The claws of the cat class, being retractile, 

 only show in the spoor when the animal is about to spring or when they are 

 shot out from some other cause ; they then cut deeply into the ground, tearing it 

 up, and are quite different to the blunt clawmarks of the dog class. 



The main arrangement of the pads of the dog class are the same as those 

 of the cat class, that is to say, there is one big pad behind, with four smaller pads 



