The Inyala 227 



very difficult to study these birds, because they 

 will not let you approach them; but one day when 

 they were perched on a dead eland I was able, hidden 

 behind a bush a few feet away, to examine them at 

 my ease. They ran about in all directions on the 

 animal, descending and ascending vertically with 

 ease. Their song somewhat resembles that of the 

 lark. 



No less difficult to study are certain antelopes, 

 among others the " inyala " (tragelaphus angasi), 

 whose tracks one always sees, but which you never 

 meet. Its habits are strange, and quite different from 

 those of its congeners. Instead of feeding on grassy 

 plains and sleeping there, it eats leaves and lives 

 entirely in dense thickets without ever leaving them, 

 disappearing at the sound of the least crack, or the 

 rustling of a dry leaf. You can imagine what chance 

 a man has amid such circumstances of getting near 

 it. Its capture is so difficult, that, although this 

 antelope has been fairly plentiful in Zululand, and 

 notwithstanding the myriads of hunters who have 

 beaten the country, Cape Town Museum did not 

 possess a specimen in 1897. In the region north of 

 the Zambesi it is found only on the chain of hills 

 which passes behind Chiromo, and stretches as far as 

 Lake Nyassa, under the name of the Kirk Mountains. 



As I wanted to procure a few fine specimens, I set 

 to work in that region, where, in 1895, I had made a 

 first unsuccessful attempt. It was necessary to employ 

 running and stratagem. I took more than ten days 

 to find where these mysterious animals drank a 



