308 Great and Small Game of Africa 



ally amongst the luxuriant weed-tangle which grows up in the old 

 "gardens." They are very partial to the young maize-sprouts. 



The young are born between December and March, earlier in the low 

 country than on the mountain plateaux ; their fur is woolly and rufous 

 brown in colour. 



A .360 Express rifle will account for any reedbuck if held straight, but 

 a .450 Metford or the Lee-Metford .303 is better ; hollow-fronted bullets 

 •should be used. In the "good old days" the favourite style of hunting 

 the reedbuck was to ride over suitable country on horseback, taking one 

 likely patch of scrub after another, or, if a party, to ride in line through 

 them, then as the buck jumped up, to dismount and take the shot as he 

 galloped off". This is very fine sport indeed, but I fear those days are over. 

 Reedbuck can, however, be stalked in the evenings or early mornings with- 

 out much difficulty, for they are not very wary antelopes. When pursued 

 they very rarely take to boggy ground, but I have seen them go through 

 such places. As a rule, however, they will almost run any risk in preference. 

 But I have known reedbuck take to water both when wounded and 

 unwounded, sinking themselves almost entirely below the surface, their 

 noses and horns only remaining above. I have only once known a reed- 

 buck to use its horns, and on that occasion it put them about 3 inches into 

 the ribs of one of my dogs. Like all herbivorous animals, reedbuck are 

 very tenacious of life, but they show a wound quicker than a bushbuck. 

 Though the latter droops his tail and runs Jijnig, as the Boers say, the reed- 

 buck, though he may continue to show his flag, constantly shakes his ears, 

 and looks " crimped-up " and generally demoralised. When badly hit, they 



often take to very dense cover. 



F. Vaughan Kirbv. 



