304 CAPT. H. G. C. SWAYNE ON THE [May 3, 



is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles each 



way- 

 There is not always much game to be got in the Haud ; but a 

 year ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by 

 Europeans, I found one of these plains covered with herds of 

 Hartebeestes, there being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one 

 time, each herd containing three or four hundred individuals. 



Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on the outskirts and in 

 spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or lying down. 



The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles 

 from Berbera ; and the game has probably been driven far beyond 

 that point by now. 



The Hartebeeste bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three 

 couples may be fighting round the same herd at one time. Often , 

 one of the bulls will be sent rolling head over heels. 



The easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans 

 round above the wind to drive the Hartebeeste towards you, at the 

 same time lying down in the grass. A shot may be got within fifty 

 yards, but no one would care to shoot many Hartebeestes, as the 

 trophy is poor. 



Often Oryxes and Soemmerring's Gazelles are seen in company with 

 these great troops of Hartebeestes, but the Oryxes are much wilder. 

 The Hartebeestes are rather tame, and they and the Soemmerring's 

 Gazelles are always the last to move away. 



Hartebeestes have great curiosity, and rush round a caravan, 

 halting now and then within two hundred yards to gaze. This sight 

 is an extraordinary one, all the Antelopes having heavy and powerful 

 forequarters, head, and chest, of a different shade of chestnut to 

 the hindquarters, which are poor and fall away. In the midday 

 haze on the plains they look like troops of Lions. 



The pace of the Hartebeeste is an ungraceful lumbering canter ; 

 but this is really the fleetest and most enduring of the Somali 

 Antelopes. The largest herd I have ever seen must have contained 

 a thousand individuals, packed closely together, and looking like a 

 regiment of cavalry, the whole plain round being dotted with single 

 bulls. 



The coat is glossy like that o£ a well-groomed horse. 



From their living so much in the open grass plains the Harte- 

 beeste must live entirely on grass, for there is nothing else to eat ; 

 and it must be able to exist for several days without water. 



Hartebeestes are the favourite food of Lions, and once, when out 

 with my brother, I found a troop of three Lions sitting out on the 

 open plains, ten miles from the nearest bush. They had evidently 

 been out all night among the herds, and on their becoming gorged, 

 the rising sun had found them disinclined to move. 



Hartebeeste horns vary greatly in shape and size. There are the 

 short massive horns and the long pointed ones, and all the gradations 

 between. Some curve forward, with the points thrown back ; others 

 curve outwards in the same plane as the forehead, the points turning 

 onward. 



