u6 Great and Small Game of Africa 



than in the other ; their habits are identical. Buffalo feed mostly during 

 the night, retiring, as soon as the sun begins to give forth his heat, 

 to the thick bush along the river beds ; very often, however, they select 

 an elevated piece of ground, where they can derive the full benefit of a 

 cool breeze. They are generally accompanied by the tick birds, which fly 

 up on the approach of the hunter and give warning, when away go the 

 buffaloes with heads down and tails up. The way they get through the 

 thick bush, which is a network of stout, rope-like creepers, thicker than 

 one's arm, is marvellous. The buffalo is a very thick-set animal, rather 

 short in the body for his bulk, and standing somewhat low on the legs. 

 His strength must be prodigious. The gait of these beasts is a heavy, 

 lumbering gallop, and although they do not appear to be going fast it is 

 wonderful the amount of ground they can cover in a very short space of 

 time. Old bulls one generally finds with large bare white patches on 

 their bodies, having rubbed off all the hair. An old buffalo bull's head 

 makes rather a grim trophy ; still it is one that is well worth pursuing, 

 although the operation of skinning will try the patience of the hunter to 

 the utmost. A buffalo has a thick, heavy hide, and when fat the coat is 

 very black and shining. I have shot a good many buffaloes lately, but I 

 have never succeeded in driving a bullet clean through an old bull, with 

 either a Martini-Henry or .577 rifle ; the missiles were all stopped by the 

 skin on the opposite side, which gives somewhat to the bullet. 



In 1897 1 found buffaloes in very large troops on the Coporole, Nimbo, 

 and Kuvali Rivers, where the bush is very dense, and one has frequently 

 to shoot these animals at very close quarters. With ordinary care, how- 

 ever, there is really very little danger ; the chief risk, when finding them 

 in large troops in thick bush, lies in the buffaloes mistaking the direction 

 of the shot, which is very difficult to locate. I have, on one or two 

 occasions, had to stand as close as I could squeeze to a friendly tree-trunk 

 to escape being knocked down by them. Buffalo have poor eyesight, but 



