158 Great and Small Game of Africa 



when I not only killed three more bulls but had splendid opportunities 

 of observing others, which I found in herds of twelve up to thirty between 

 Lakes Nakuru and Elmeteita. In one herd of thirty-three, nearly all cows 

 with six-month-old calves, there were two cow jacksoni also with calves, 

 and, as I was on the top of a rocky hill with the early morning sun at 

 my back, 1 had a close and good view of them as they fed below me within 

 300 yards. On being disturbed by the barking of some baboons they 

 all walked quietly away straight from me, and the difference in the 

 wider spread of the horns, and the much paler, almost white-looking 

 sterns of B. neumanni was most conspicuous. It is certainly one of the 

 most remarkably local beasts 1 have ever come across, as it is confined 

 to a very narrow strip of country running east and west from Lake 

 Elmeteita to the foot of the Mau slopes. Fifteen miles north of the 

 camping-ground at Marago M'baruk, at the north end of Lake Elmeteita, 

 I saw no hartebeests excepting B. jacksoni, of which there was a fair 

 number. 



The headquarters of B. jacksoni are, undoubtedly, the Mau plateau 

 and Turkwel. On the rolling grassy downs of the former they are very 

 common from about 8000 to 5000 feet. Wherever found, they may 

 be seen in herds of four or five up to forty or fifty and sometimes 

 more, also single bulls quite by themselves. 



If asked the question whether they are difficult to stalk or not, I 

 should say that it depends a good deal on the time of year, as they are 

 certainly much more difficult to approach from December to April, when 

 the grass has been burnt and affords little or no covert. In July and 

 August they are quite easy to approach, as the grass is at that time long 

 and still green ; and it then generally amounts to stalking one of them 

 only, the sentinel. No beast living knows better how to take advantage 

 of the innumerable ant-heaps that are scattered all over the country 

 it frequents, and the sentinel of the herd, whether they are scattered 



