family. They seem to know that you cannot shoot 

 them without making more row and doing more harm 

 than they do. 



I stood still for a few minutes to give this one a 

 chance to fly away, and when it would not do so, 

 but kept on screeching and craning its neck at me, I 

 threw a stone at it. It ducked violently and gave a 

 choking hysterical squawk of alarm and anger as the 

 stone whizzed close to its head ; then flying on to 

 another tree a few yards off, screamed away more 

 noisily than ever. Evidently the best thing to do 

 was to go ahead taking no notice of the creature and 

 trusting that it would tire and leave me alone ; so I 

 walked off briskly. 



There was a slight rustling in the bush ahead of us 

 as I stepped out, and then the sound of feet. I made 

 a dash for the chance of a running shot, but it was too 

 late, and all we saw was half a dozen beautiful koodoo 

 disappearing among the tree stems. 



I turned towards that Go 'way bird. Perhaps he 

 did not like the look on my face or the way I held the 

 rifle ; for he gave one more snarling shriek, as if he 

 was emptying himself for ever of his rage and spite, 

 and flapped away. 



Jock was standing like a statue, leaning slightly forward 

 but with head very erect, jaws tightly closed, and eyes 

 looking straight in front, as bright as black diamonds. 



It was a bad disappointment ; for that was the 

 first time we had fairly and squarely come upon 

 koodoo. However, it was still early and the 

 game had not been scared, but had gone off 



133 



