142 



ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 



occasional lesser koodoo or two, a little lot of impala, some- 

 times, at one particular point, and rarely an odd bushbuck, are 

 all that is seen, without counting the diminutive paa, and now 

 and again a rhino, giraffe, or hippo spoor. Formerly there 

 was a sprinkling of buffalo in small herds ; but these the 

 cattle plague swept off The other game, however, was always 

 scarce. It is easy to say that the conditions are not suited to 

 its requirements — too much scrub and too little grass — but 

 one cannot help wondering why some species have not become 





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VULTURINES AND DOG, 



adapted to the land. Here are great stretches of uninhabited 

 bush country with a perennial river running through it, and 

 hardly any animals, though plenty of birds and of " fly " 

 (tetse). 



On the Athi are three varieties of guinea-fowl. Towards 

 the coast the small, delicate, little crested species, living in 

 thick bush, is found — the tenderest of all on the table. In its 

 middle course large flocks of the large and beautiful vulturine 

 guinea-fowl are met with ; while higher up again comes the 

 common horned kind. The second, though very wild and hard 

 to get a shot at without a dog, becomes the veriest idiot when 



