494 Great and Small Game of Africa 



will not be noticed : meanwhile you are recovering your breath and 

 regaining your steadiness, which a difficult creep in the hot African sun 

 cannot fail to have considerably shaken. 



The Ndorobo natives are very rarely able to shoot giraffes with the bow 

 and poisoned arrow, owing to the difficulty of getting near them. But 

 they occasionally catch them in their fall traps, set in places where they 

 are in the habit of crossing gullies or in paths through thick patches of 

 bush. The Wakamba are sometimes able to kill them with arrows by 

 hunting in large parties and surrounding a herd ; but even so, I fancy, they 

 very seldom succeed. 



The modern small-bore rifles are more effective than any other on this, as 

 on most, if not all, kinds of game. The heart or lungs may be reached from 

 any position, and a shot there is very quickly fital. It is necessary, though, 

 to be particularly careful not to aim too high, as the immense width of 

 the base of the neck tends to deceive the eye as to the position of the vitals. 



It often happens, particularly when suddenly come upon, that the neck 

 is the only part of the giraffe visible. In such cases a shot in the centre of 

 the neck will break the spine and drop the animal on the spot. It was 

 Mr. Astor Chanler, the well-known American traveller, who suggested 

 this shot to me, as he told me that he had killed most of his giraffes with 

 it, and I found it very effective. One may often lose a chance by trying 

 to get a view of the body of one, forgetting that any point on the central 

 line of the long neck is a vital spot. 



In Central Africa one only shoots giraffes when in need of meat for 

 one's men. The skin is far too heavy and bulky to carry away as a 

 specimen, and even the skull is a cumbersome thing to transport, whilst it 

 is not of much interest as a trophy. Moreover, they are such strangely 

 beautiful, such grotesquely graceful creatures, and withal so harmless, that 

 one feels some hesitation in slaying them except for urgent needs. It is a 

 particularly lovely sight to see from an eminence or opposing slope the 



