434 Great and Small Game of Africa 



They are very different in this respect from many other antelope, especially 

 sable and roan, which are fierce and dangerous at close quarters when 

 wounded. 



As soon as the morning sun becomes powerful, eland like to get into 

 shade, and often spend the mid-day hours under some leafy tree, their tails 

 in constant motion flicking the flies off their backs. When among trees, 

 this whisking of the tail is sometimes the first thing which catches the eye, 

 and warns one of their presence. 



A bull eland is such a large and powerful beast that he requires some- 

 thing heavier than the Lee-Metford expanding bullet. 1 have more than 

 once killed them with one bullet from a .303 ; but a .450 express with the 

 long-based bullet is far better (not the old short-based express bullet). 



Alfred Sharpe. 



In British East Africa 

 Swahili Name, Mpofu ; Masai, Sirwwa ; Wanderobbo, Singoita 



The eland found in East Africa is the striped variety, Taurotragus oryx 

 livingstonei. It is out and away the largest, and, to my mind, the grandest 

 of all the antelopes, though its head as a trophy can in no way compare 

 with the sable antelope or koodoo. 



In 1887 it was plentiful on the main road from Vanga to Kilimanjaro, 

 at Adda ; in the open bush-country between Kisigao and Mitati, and the 

 Siringeti plains west of Teita. On the road to Machakos it was found at 

 Ndii, Mto Ndai, and Mikinduni, and in the long stretch of sparsely- 

 wooded country between the Rivers Mto Kiboko and Dangi. Farther 

 north it was to be seen in fair numbers between Lakes Elmeteita and 

 Baringo, on the Mau plateau and in Turkwel. In the Kilimanjaro district 

 it was, however, much more abundant than in any other place I have ever 

 visited, particularly on the southern side of the mountain, between Taveita 



