134 LICHTENSTEIN'S HARTEBEESTE 



brown of the males. They are, moreover, con- 

 siderably smaller. The belly and the insides of 

 the legs are a dirty cream colour, almost white 

 in the case of the females, while the tail, knees, 

 and mane are black. They are extraordinarily 

 awkwardly shaped animals, the back sloping to 

 the croup at an astonishingly abrupt angle, 

 which may possibly have suggested their re- 

 sponsibility in the long-dead past for a similar 

 peculiarity — if perhaps not quite so marked — in 

 the family of the wildebeestes. 



Hartebeestes have, however, one redeeming 

 feature, which has gained for them the whole- 

 hestrted respect of most, if not all, hunters : their 

 meat is excellent — second only, I think, to that 

 of the eland. 



They are curious and rather stupid animals, 

 and on being disturbed will canter clumsily off for 

 a few hundred yards, then stop and turn round, 

 regarding the approach of the hostile agency with 

 an expression of pained remonstrance. These 

 tactics they will repeat over and over again, 

 managing, with the nicest perception, to keep just 

 beyond effective rifle range. 



On one occasion I had an opportunity to ap- 

 preciate the amazing toughness of these animals. 

 I had been camped for several days under the 

 shadow of mighty Gorongoza Mountain, and had 

 been enjoying some very satisfactory sport, when 

 one evening, being on the point of returning to 

 camp, I made out from the top of an ant-heap a 

 very fine herd bull, looking almost dark from 

 among the paler females by which he was ac- 



