WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



ties thinly covered with bushes. It feeds not only on 

 grass, but also on leaves and fruits, especially those 

 of a big species of nightshade (Solanimi). 



The Grant gazelle is very shy and cautious. The fe- 

 males lead the herd in their flight ; the males form the 

 rear-guard. A buck, when eying his pursuer, looks very 

 pompous with his stiff neck and heavy horns; the fe- 

 males are gracefulness and agility personified. 



During our spring months the Grant gazelle is tor- 

 mented by larvae and by horse-flies. The larvae pene- 

 trate the skin and spoil, not only the coat of the animal, 

 but also the taste of the flesh. 



The Grant gazelle can go for a long time without 

 drinking, and is therefore often found far in the steppe 

 at an enormous distance from the drinking-places. 



Once I came dangerously near to being impaled on 

 the pointed horns of a female. Alfred Kaiser and I 

 were one day resting in the neighborhood of the Meru 

 mountain, when we suddenly saw, in the distance, a 

 single gazelle. I stalked it, and fired at it, at a dis- 

 tance of about nine hundred feet, but only wounded 

 the animal. I was greatly astonished w^hen I saw it 

 running towards me instead of from me. I realized 

 that the animal was a female Grant gazelle whose 

 young one, no doubt, was near my stand. I fortu- 

 nately succeeded in killing the enraged mother by a 

 second shot. 



The Thomson gazelle resembles the Grant gazelle in 



306 



