148 THE REEDBUCK 



their courses run through immense open plains, 

 and may be traced low down on the horizon for 

 many miles by a dark winding belt of wild date- 

 palms, acacias of several kinds, albizzias, and 

 other water-loving growths. Behind these again 

 you come to a more or less wide belt of high 

 spear-grass, and, as the surface of the plain re- 

 cedes from the water, to reeds and grasses of a 

 reasonable growth. This is the place for reed- 

 buck. Near the mouths of the Mupa and Mun- 

 gari Rivers I have seen their clear-cut footprints 

 in the sand of the seashore, whilst in the various 

 mouths of the Zambezi — especially the Chinde 

 mouth — ^they were so numerous that the fact was 

 officially noted on the Admiralty charts of twenty 

 years ago. At the mouth of the Mungari there is 

 a curious and somewhat extensive peninsula of 

 low-lying grass land. On this, towards evening, 

 I have counted from the summit of an ant-heap 

 more than twenty reedbuck feeding in sight at 

 the same time, and on one occasion, not very 

 many miles away from the point mentioned, being 

 forced by the failure of a supply of grain to arrive 

 in time to provide meat for my hungry carriers, 

 I killed six of these antelopes in about three- 

 quarters of an hour. 



The reedbuck is a beautiful, graceful type of 

 animal about the size of a fallow deer. As its 

 name implies, and as I have just shown, it is a 

 dweller in reeds and loves the neighbourhood 

 of water. It is an animal which adheres strictly 

 to the family circle, and thus, although a number 

 may be seen at the same time extending over a 



