A Breath from the Veldt 



157 



by a series of great bounds, very different from the machine-like trot of deer. 

 Moreover, none of them gallop absolutely straight away from the shooter, but 

 each separate bound is made more or less to one side or the other as the animal 

 chooses its ground ; so a galloping shot at 100 yards at a small buck is really 

 something to be proud of when the bullet finds its billet. 



The reedbuck {Cervicapra arundineum) is still found in fair numbers in 

 Mashonaland, but only in the more isolated hunting-grounds of to-day. Since 

 it is both the tamest and easiest buck in South Africa to approach and kill, 

 and it frequents the dry grass sluits in the vicinity of water, where waggons 



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PRINCE AND DONKEYS CARRYING GAME TO WAGGON 



are bound to stand, one cannot but fear that its days are numbered. Except 

 here and there one, it has already disappeared from the Transvaal and southern 

 countries. It is a graceful antelope, about midway in size between a roe and 

 a fallow deer, and possessed of a long rufous coat, with white under-parts and 

 a pair of the most lovely eyes in existence. In moments of alarm the ears are 

 thrown forward to an unusual extent, and the nose, when seen in profile, 

 presents a curious- ridge-like excrescence not yet found in the taxidermic 

 establishments of Piccadilly, Wardour Street, or Camden Town. 



Though elegant in form, this buck is but a poor mover. It commonly 

 moves in a long rolling gallop, keeping up the same pace over either very 



