A Breath from the Veldt 



33S 



them. When feeding they frequently kneel— a position which few, if any, of 

 the other ruminants ever assume after they have ceased to be calves. And 

 probably from force of habit old bulls, when ploughing up the ground in excess 

 of fury, will often drop suddenly on their knees— a circumstance which partly 

 accounts for the condition of "Jack " at our Zoo. If some of my readers could 

 but see him in one of his tantrums, they would not wonder that his knees were 

 worn hard and smooth and his horns blunted, cracked, and chipped in two years 



A WOUNDED BLACK WILDEBEEST BULL 



of confinement. When the wildebeest bull is exceedingly angry he not only 

 gets down on the ground and drives one horn into the earth, attempting to tear 

 it up, but, as I have myself seen on several occasions, he will use his head like 

 a plough, burying one of his horns in the ground and pushing himself forward 

 by means of his hind legs alone. This does not do the ground much harm, but 

 it has a bad wear-and-tear effect on the gentleman who is so foolish as to lose 

 his temper. These exhibitions of violence are only some of numerous traits in 

 the wildebeest character : the extraordinary attitudes and evolutions of a herd 



