196 Great and Small Game of Africa 



true antelope, slender, clean, and very shapely, and ending in longish, rather 

 narrow, but extremely neat hoofs. Between and at the top of the division 

 of the hoofs, in front, grows a curious brush of rufous-coloured hair. 

 From its somewhat heavy, ungainly head, which the blue wildebeest 

 carries, especially in its faster paces, very low, and from the masses of hair 

 and mane about the head and fore parts, the animal has a very cumbrous 

 appearance, and when first seen it is difficult for the hunter to believe that 

 it possesses the pace, activity, and staying powers with which it is usually 

 credited, As the animal moves off after a curvet or two, a few kicks, a 

 toss of the head, and a flourish of the long black tail, its slower paces seem 

 heavy and laboured. It is, in truth, just about as deceptive a beast of chase 

 as the hartebeest. The blue wildebeest is, as a matter of fact, one of the 

 swiftest animals in South Africa ; it can stay everlastingly, it is extremely 

 tenacious of life, and even with a broken leg, or a bullet through the body, 

 will gallop clean away from the mounted hunter and make good its escape. 

 The blue wildebeest is gregarious and usually runs in troops of from 

 twenty to fifty. In country where they have not been much molested, 

 as, for example, some parts of the vast, unhealthy, and little -known 

 territory of South-East Africa, lying between the Zambesi and Pungwe 

 Rivers, many large troops may be seen feeding together upon the plains, 

 so that several hundred head may be occasionally in sight. During the 

 winter season the bulls will be often found ranging together, apart from 

 the cows and younger animals, in considerable troops. 1 A collection of 

 these big full-grown bulls, with their heavy Roman-nosed heads and wild, 

 cumbrous, and fantastic appearance, is, when going at full gallop, a fine 

 sight. When hotly pursued, the troop usually strings out somewhat, not 

 quite in single file, but in a longish line. Even a well-mounted hunter 

 has, upon open plains, where these wildebeest are often to be found 

 feeding, occasionally a somewhat difficult task to bring one of these 



1 At this time the cows arc in young. 



