152 THE IMPALA 



impala found in that rising colony — namely, that 

 during the winter months, which no doubt 

 coincide with the period of gestation, the males 

 separate from the herd and keep scrupulously 

 to themselves apart. It is a somewhat singular 

 fact, if Mr, Duff's observations should have been 

 correct, that in the adjoining Portuguese Sphere 

 the impala found there, which are identical 

 with the Nyasaland family, occur in the winter 

 months in their greatest numbers, and, so far 

 from there being any separation of the sexes, 

 the winter months seem always to bring them 

 together. For this there would seem to be a 

 comprehensible reason in the fact that during 

 that season of the year the grazing grounds 

 would be much more circumscribed than in the 

 rainy season, when the whole face of the country 

 is covered with a marvellously luxuriant tropical 

 vegetation, affording a much wider range for 

 the impala, as, of course, for all other similar 

 species. It is doubtless due to this that during 

 the summer or rainy season the presence of 

 these animals in the vicinity of perennial streams 

 is much less remarkable than in the winter 

 months. 



I can imagine no greater delight for a lover of 

 nature than to stalk close up to a herd of impala 

 and watch them from some place of concealment. 

 Nothing could exceed the grace and daintiness 

 of their every movement. If the herd be a large 

 one, containing representatives of all ages and 

 conditions, the picture is even still more com- 

 pelling. As in the cases of so many species of 



