264 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII, 
after him by myself as although I may be a fool I never allow a native retainer 
to be a fool at the same time. One fool is quite enough on such an occasion. So 
about 11-30 a.m. saw me crawling down a tunnel like track following good-look- 
ing blood spoor. This I did for two hours with what little wind there was behind 
me. About this time I missed the spoor and took a wrong turn. Finding out 
my mistake I returned until I could just see the fork, so lay down behind an old 
fallen tree to wipe my steaming face, as it is hot in these places. After a bit I 
was electrified to hear the blowing of my friend,with a corresponding hammer of 
my heart, and after a wait the buffalo came along the main path I had used 
sniffing and blowing steam from his nostrils along my very spoor. He came to 
the fork 30 feet away, sniffed, then went along the main track. Whilst trying to 
see him through the undergrowth I must have made a noise as the resulting 
charge crashed me over, and the ensuing ten minutes, with two ribs broken and 
a shoulder dislocated before the buffalo finally went under, has taught the writer 
a few things about being a fool. Now if that buffalo had had a proper sense of 
scent he would have picked my spoor up the side track. He did not but went 
straight on. I move, and am promptly charged, located exactly and instantly 
by the power of hearing. 
It might bore you to hear more about Bos caffer so I will proceed with. 
The Rhinoceros, the clown of the animal world. Time and again when photo- 
graphing this animal I have gone down wind, up wind, any wind so long as I 
kept his stern in front of me and wore rubber soled boots,—but let his smail 
pig eyes or ears see or hear me then it was hopeless, 
The Elephant.—To my mind the elephant is an animal with the sense of scent 
most developed and this I think is due to evolution, a subject which causes more 
bad language than beer. 
There is another absorbing subject, 7.e., a study of the senses shown by The 
Crocodile, a reptile. I have always been keen to watch but as all my experiences: 
have been with the African brute they might not be of interest to members of 
an Indian Natural History Society, but I can assure you crocodiles will reward 
any man who has the opportunity to watch them. 
The Wild Goat and the Jailan.—Then take the wild goat (Capra hircus) and 
the Jailan or Red Sheep (Ovis orientalis gmelini) of the Bos Dagh Range, Asia 
Minor. They depend solely on sight alone. 
One example I can give was whilst shooting on the Bos Dagh Range. We 
had had a long day after the oldest and most cunning of all the tribe of big sheep, 
until I was well-nigh finished. I was sitting in the snow telling myself what a 
fool I was to go miles and miles after a poor sheep when I could buy a head in 
Konia any day, when a hiss from Mehemet, my brigand guide, brought me flat 
in the snow behind a tuft of grass. I remember thinking how my stern limbs must 
be looming up on the horizon when an old ram with five ewes came along step- 
ping in my own spoor which lay along the snow covered plateau plain to the 
whole world. The sheep came along in single file and did not even sniff or take 
the slightest interest in the strange footsteps in the snow until the old ram saw 
my dreaded stern portion and I wondered if it was the rough patch in my old 
flannel trousers which had upset the old boy’s sense of the artistic. Anyway he 
was upset, spun round and away they went as only these animals can go. 
Wild Goat—I have never in the Taurus Range, Asia Minor, been nearer to 
wild goat than 600 yards and whatever other senses they may have these must. 
be useless to them compared with their wonderful sight. 
Ncw what we learn from all this is :— 
(1) That the scent of man is unknown to the majority of wild animals and only, 
known to leopards or other flesh eating animals by years of contact with mankind, 
in other words by evolution or bitter hard experience passed down by genera- 
tion to generation. . 
(2) Wild animals depend firstly on sight for offensive and defensive action. 
