The Impala 329 



The does sometimes get very fat, and are then excellent venison. When 

 in high condition the coat is wonderfully sleek and glossy, and a young 

 doe is then less red in colour, being more of a brownish tint, almost 

 approaching to mouse-colour. 



The rams fight desperately, and the vanquished form separate herds by 

 themselves. In the rutting season the rams make a curious deep-toned 

 sound, which can be best described as a kind of continuous grunting. To 

 one unfamiliar with the habits of this buck the noise might be more 

 readily believed to be produced by pigs, when heard in thick bush where 

 the animals themselves are hidden. 



As already stated, this antelope is not independent of water and is never 

 found very far away from it ; but the frequency with which it drinks 

 depends very much upon the state of the pasturage. When that is very 

 dry it resorts to the water at least once in the twenty-four hours, but when 

 feeding on fresh green grass it does not need to drink so often, and at such 

 times wanders farther away from its drinking-places. It feeds principally 

 on grass, but eats leaves as well. 



Impalas are most graceful and agile creatures, and display marvellous 

 activity when alarmed, flying through the scrub and bounding high over 

 bushes, one after another, as the herd follows its leader in his headlong 

 course ; or, if surprised at close quarters in thick cover, the bush becomes 

 suddenly alive with them, several often being in the air simultaneously in 

 their first bewildered affright. 



As a rule they are not very hard to stalk, but it is sometimes difficult 

 to get a shot at them owing to the thick bush they often frequent. When, 

 however, the hunter has once succeeded in approaching unobserved, he 

 may often, if he wish it, kill two or three (as pointed out by Mr. Jackson 

 in the Badminton Library), one after the other, and occasionally two may 

 even be brought down with one bullet. 



In districts where there are wild dogs (in Equatorial Africa I have 

 2 u 



