238 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



forest the fore-part of the spoor often sinks in a couple of inches, whilst the back part is level with 

 the surface. I am referring to walking-spoor. In galloping-spoor the whole foot sinks in deeply, 

 but the toes are still the deeper part. The droppings are light coloured, something like those 

 of the waterbuck in shape, but they are occasionally stringy. The usual droppings are something 

 like those of cattle, but much lighter in colour, whilst the drier droppings and occasional 

 droppings are like the dry-weather droppings of the waterbuck, only lighter in colour. 



Food. — The bongo eats a great variety of foods, amongst other things, rotten bark and 

 pith of decayed trees. When a tree in the forest dies or falls it is soon affected by the 

 damp and becomes soft and rotten. Wood-borers attack the dead trees, and the holes they 

 make facilitate the entry of rain or moisture. It is then that the bongo likes to gnaw 

 the decayed wood under the bark. 



Other foods are the charcoal and charred woods of the burnt trees of the forest ; the 

 animal probably eats these to get the salt contained in them ; the barks of certain trees, 

 which it strips off in the same destructive way as does an eland in bush-country; roots 

 of various trees which it digs up with its horns. There is a plant in the forest the leaves 

 of which are of much the same texture and shape as those of a primrose, but of gigantic 

 size, being a foot long. The bongo occasionally eats these leaves. The floor of the forest 

 is largely carpeted with a plant much like the stinging nettle in shape and appearance, but the 

 leaves are not so dull. There are also patches of stinging nettles growing amongst this 

 plant. Just at first it is difficult to pick out and avoid the stinging nettles from amongst the 

 masses of this plant through which you have to walk. However, when you have been 

 stung several times, you quickly learn to distinguish them. These two plants, the 

 nettle and its innocuous facsimile, form the favourite foods of the bongo. The animal also eats 

 bamboo leaves. 



Habitat. — The animal inhabits thick forest, such as the forests of the Kikuyu and Mau 

 escarpments and those about the Ravine, Lumbwa, and Fort Ternan. In these localities it is 

 very plentiful. It is also found, but scarcer in numbers, in the Murasi forests of Kinangop 

 and the Aberdares, and also in the forest belt of Kenya. 



As the floor of the forest is covered everywhere with a layer of brittle twigs, which crack when 

 stepped upon, this animal generally has ample warning of the approach of an enemy. Moreover, 

 in the places in which it loves to lie up there is generally an abundance of noxious vegetation, 

 brambles, gigantic nettle-bushes, as well as a network of branches and lianas. Any creature 

 (such as man) that is not specially built for moving about in this sort of country, will find these 

 obstacles very difficult to pass, and almost impossible to pass amongst in silence, or to get 

 through at more than a snail's pace. The bongo, however, slips through, over, and under 

 such obstacles easily enough, or, if needs be, crashes through the slighter obstructions, such 

 as brambles, thorns, and creepers. The vines and creepers are really worse than the thick 

 pendant lianas hanging crosswise and in loops from the tall trees, for the latter can be parted 

 or pushed aside, stepped over, or crawled through, as the case may be ; but the all-pervading 

 vines and convolvulus-like creepers hook up your feet, knees, ears, hat, buttons, rifle, and 

 every conceivable angle of the person. Whilst disentangling yourself from a mass of these, 

 as likely as not you will brush up against a giant-nettle, which stings through your clothes, 

 and is said to make even the elephant " sit up." 



Parts of the forest are carpeted with flowers and small shoots, which are pleasant to walk 

 among. There you may see the bongo's spoor, but you know that you will not find the animal 



