150 THE REEDBUCK 



of them, they utter a wheezy but penetrating 

 whistle, and bound rapidly away. Even when 

 in full flight, however, in districts where they 

 have not been much hunted, I have more than 

 once checked them by whistling shrilly, although 

 this does not by any means always succeed. 

 Their food consists, I believe, entirely of grass, 

 and their meat is a most appreciable addition 

 to one's table. 



In the early nineties, when the British Navy 

 maintained two small stern-wheel gunboats on 

 the Lower Zambezi, I have on several occasions 

 accompanied the officers of these vessels on 

 shooting excursions up the Inyamaria and Inya- 

 makativa channels, as also through the Madridane 

 opening to the lower or Inyamissengo branch. 

 Here we have shot numbers of reedbuck, which 

 on our return were greatly appreciated by those 

 at Chinde, who, by force of circumstances, were 

 only able to obtain a substance dimly resembling 

 fresh meat about once a week. I do not know if 

 conditions have greatly changed, but it seems to 

 me more than probable that even now the 

 numbers of the reedbuck in the Zambezi delta 

 may not have been greatly thinned since the 

 time I mention. Still, shooting reedbuck only 

 is doubtless far from an exciting form of sport, 

 although there was, in my recollection of these 

 hunting grounds, frequent opportunity of an en- 

 counter with larger and more interesting beasts. 



The Impala is essentially a forest - loving 

 animal, and perhaps of all the smaller of the 

 African antelopes the most beautiful and graceful. 



