BUFFALO 191 



were reminiscent of " Smithfield" (a spot I have never 

 seen). 



Born and bred in primal security, unconscious of care or 

 of cordite, these happier herds probably spent their whole 

 lives within a radius of a league or two. Nevertheless it 

 remains to remark that even these unharassed buffaloes, 

 although secure in pristine fastnesses, still prefer to feed 

 by night ; and that by day though scorning protection of 



HORNS OF Two OLD BUFFALO-BULLS, SHOWING DIVERGENT TYPES. 

 (Shot right-and-left from same Herd, on White Nile.) 



thicket or jungle they continue alert to the last degree ; 

 as keen in all the senses of sight, sound, and scent as any 

 wild beast I have ever pursued. 1 



1 These last paragraphs are obviously at variance with my own previous 

 remarks on the habits of much-hunted buffaloes as observed elsewhere 

 as, for example, not only in other parts of Sudan but in British East Africa. 

 In the latter, as related in On Safari (p. 186), the great bovines seek out 

 the densest and most impenetrable thorn-thickets, or as at Lake Baringo 

 oceans of "elephant-grass" equally impassable to man, for their diurnal 

 refuge. In light of these memories, it amazed me to find buffalo here in 

 an odd corner of Sudan lying-up in open forest, and even choosing bare 

 spots at that ! It is solely a question of local conditions and of the degree 

 of persecution to which they may have been subjected. 



