OF WILD ANIMALS 157 



get-away ifhen found, I will back a buck of this species against 

 all other deer on earth. He has no fatal curiosity. He will 

 not halt and pose for a bullet in order to have a look at you. 

 What the startled buck wants is more space and more green 

 bushes between the Man and himself. 



The Moose is a weird-looking and uncanny monster, but 

 he knows one line of strategy that is startling in its logic. 

 Often when a bull moose is fleeing from a long stem chase, — 

 always through wooded country, — he will turn aside, swing 

 a wide semicircle backward, and then lie down for a rest close 

 up to leeward of his trail. There he lies motionless and waits 

 for man-made noises, or man scent; and when he senses either 

 sign of his pursuer, he silently moves away in a new direction. 



The Antelopes of the Old World. The antelopes, ga- 

 zelles, gnus and hartebeests of Africa and Asia almost without 

 exception live inr herds, some of them very large. Owing to 

 this fact their minds are as little developed, individually, as the 

 minds of herd animals generally are. The herd animal, 

 relying as it does upon its leaders, and the security that large 

 numbers always seem to afford, is a creature of few independent 

 ideas. It is not like the deer, elk, sheep or goat that has 

 learned things in the hard school of solitude, danger and 

 adversity, with no one on whom to rely for safety save itself. 

 The basic intelligence of the average herd animal can be sum- 

 med up in one line: 



"Post your sentinels, then follow your leader." 



Judging from what hunters in Africa have told me, the 

 hunting of most kinds of African antelopes is rather easy and 

 quiet long-range rifle work. In comparison with any sheep, 

 goat, ibex, markhor and even deer hvmting, it must be rather 

 mild sport. A level grassy plain with more or less bushes and 

 small trees for use in stalking is a tame scenario beside moun- 

 tains and heavy forests, and it seems to me that this sameness 

 and tameness of habitat naturally fails to stimulate the mental 

 development of the wild habitants. 



