464 Great and Small Game of Africa 



bushes, his horns laid back and nose outstretched, to disappear into the 

 recesses of the cover. What strength is depicted in that sturdy frame with 

 its rounded outlines, and how suggestive of springy activity are those deli- 

 cately tapered limbs ! Or look at that sleek doe, her glossy coat of brilliant 

 red, barred with many pure white transverse lines, glistening with the early 

 morning sun shining full upon her side ; can anything be more beautiful ? 



Like its relative the bushbuck (to which it seems to occupy much the 

 same relationship as the koodoo to the lesser koodoo), the inyala is essen- 

 tially a dweller in thick woods, and, also like it (and I suppose the whole 

 genus), feeds almost exclusively on leaves and weeds, with sometimes wild 

 fruits and berries ; eating little grass. Again, like the bushbuck, it is not 

 found very far from water (though it does stray farther afield than that 

 thirsty little creature) ; but, unlike this smaller congener, it never frequents 

 hills, its favourite haunts being the dense covers in the neighbourhood of 

 rivers and lakes. In the daytime it lies concealed in their shady depths, and 

 only ventures forth at night ; or, where not much disturbed, it may some- 

 times be found browsing in the more open glades just outside their borders 

 during the early morning or late afternoon. 



Mr. Selous found no bushbuck in the country where he shot his 

 specimens, and inferred that the inyalas might drive the smaller species 

 away. This is by no means the case, however, in Zululand ; there the two 

 are found inhabiting the same covers. I had abundant evidence of this 

 on the Umkuzi River, where both kinds were plentiful. I frequently shot 

 bushbuck and saw inyala in the same patch of bush during the same 

 ramble, and the tracks of both were everywhere. I have even once killed 

 a young inyala ram by mistake for a bushbuck in thick cover, though a 

 full-grown male might be almost more readily mistaken for a young 

 koodoo, which latter species is also found in the same locality. There is 

 a very great similarity in the markings of the inyala and lesser koodoo, as 

 well as a much closer approximation in size, though the former is a more 



