Wolves Marvellous Hunters 125 



As soon as they were recognised to be useless the 

 dogs became superfluous mouths at the camp, and 

 I decided to get rid of them. Two saved me the 

 trouble. One of them was snapped up by a crocodile 

 one morning when he was imprudently drinking on 

 the banks of the Revugwe, and disappeared for ever 

 with a piercing cry ; the other died from the bite of 

 the tsetse. The two survivors became the property 

 (fortunate possessors !) of the natives of a village, 

 until a nocturnal leopard finished them, as happens to 

 the majority of dogs in certain mountainous regions. 

 Hence, perhaps, their instinctive repulsion for great 

 caruivora. 



If the dogs of these countries are useless for pursu- 

 ing dangerous animals, what marvellous hunters, on 

 the other hand, are their elder brothers the African 

 wolves ! What boldness, perseverance, and tenacity 

 they show ! Nothing is more interesting than to 

 see them hunting on their own account, and at their 

 own risk and peril, without horns, or red coats, or 

 whippers-in. 1 



During my last stay in these regions I had occasion 

 frequently to see them at work. I was present at 

 only a few of their hunts ; but I learnt some new 

 and curious details about them, which I will add 

 to the information already given about these animals, 

 completing the very striking portrait which the pencil 

 of M. Mahler has drawn in Mes Grandes Chasses 

 dans TAfrique Centrale. 



Experience has shown me that they attack not only 



1 See Mes Grandes Chasses > pp. 166, 167, 200. 



