LICHTEXSTEIN'S HARTEBEESTE 133 



asperating in his ungainly, bounding canter, in 

 the course of which he appears clumsily to hft 

 all four feet from off the ground at the same time, 

 and glances back now and then with an almost 

 exaggerated air of awed, deprecating surprise 

 which sits well indeed upon his long, cofiBn-shaped 

 face. 



The hartebeeste is a lover of trees. One 

 usually finds him in the thinly forested woodlands 

 which form the foothills of a movmtain range, or 

 on moderately high, undulating, slightly wooded 

 plains. He is foxmd at times in the lower ex- 

 panses, but only on such of these as afford shelter 

 from the sun, and at the same time are not 

 covered with thick brushwood, which he greatly 

 dislikes. In park-like alternations of forest and 

 grass he is most at home, and these are the 

 localities where in the past I seem to recoUect 

 most frequently to have seen him. He is almost 

 entirely a grass-eater, and does not stray far 

 from water, at which he drinks twice diu-ing the 

 day — ^at early dawn and at evening. I have 

 seen them in dull or rainy weather drinking as 

 late as eight or nine o'clock in the morning, 

 but this I believe to be quite an exceptional 

 occiirrence. 



Foimd in small assemblages of from ten to 

 thirty, although both sexes carry the mean- 

 looking horns with which they have by nature 

 been provided, the merest tyro could find no 

 possible difiicTilty in distinguishing the buUs from 

 the cows : the latter are much paler in their 

 almost ochreous yellow than the bright reddish 



10 



