220 Animal Life 
when first descending from 
the broken country at the 
head of the Mutachini river, 
where there was but little 
game, into the level coast 
plaims the first buffaloes I 
encountered were five old 
bulls. I saw them lying 
in the shade of some palm 
scrub on the bank of the 
river whose course I was 
following. 
As I walked towards 
them they raised the great 
armoured heads and looked 
curiously at the first human 
beimg with a hat and shirt 
on they had probably ever 
seen. My small retinue of 
native servants were just 
then some little distance 
behind, and not until I was 
within fifty yards of them did first one and then another of these massive black bulls 
rise from his bed. But not immediately to run off, for they stood thei ground and 
still for some time stared inquisitively—one might almost have said menacingly—with 
outstretched noses and horns laid back on their necks. However, in a long experience 
BS 
. Smith, Esq. 
A WATERBUCK REPOSING. 
BRS. 2 SS an am 
Photograph by Norman B 
of African buffaloes, I have not found old bulls of this species either savage or aggressive - 
when not molested and when feeding or resting in ground sufficiently open to allow 
them to see anything approaching, though a sudden charge by a buffalo lying in long 
grass or thick jungle, which has either been previously wounded by a hunter or mauled 
by lons, is a not uncommon incident of African travel. 
On the occasion of which I am speaking, when I was not more than thirty yards 
from the five old bulls one of them actually came trotting towards me. I then took 
off my hat and waved it, shouting out at the same time. ‘Then the old fellow turned 
and trotted away and, soon breaking into a heavy lumbering gallop, was quickly followed 
by his companions. Later on, the same day, another solitary old buffalo bull allowed 
me and my native followers to walk past within eighty yards of where he lay without 
even troubling himself to get up. After the buffaloes, the bushbucks were the tamest 
animals in this great natural game park. These lovely little animals, whose rich 
dark brown coats are in this part of Africa most beautifully banded and_ spotted 
with white, would stand gazing at me, amongst the scrubby bush or open forest they 
frequent, and often ailow a very near approach. The denizens of the open plains— 
blue wildebeests, tsesébes, Lichtenstein’s hartebeests—were wilder and more wary than 
the buffaloes and bushbucks, but still tame compared with their much-hunted relatives 
in other parts of South Africa. Waterbucks, reedbucks, oribis, and zebras (Burchell’s) 
were all very tame and confiding, and the latter, if they did not get one’s wind, very 
inquisitive, as I have found them to be in other unfrequented districts. One day I 
was resting with my native attendants and taking a mid-day meal on one of the large 
ant-heaps with which many parts of South-Hast Africa are studded, when a herd of 
perhaps 100 zebras came up over the open plain to see what was going on. Led 
by a gallant-looking old stallion, the whole troop advanced slowly to within about a 
