A Breath from the Veldt 337 



reader, perhaps I cannot do better than describe the first meeting with a big 



troop of say fifty of these wildebeests. Your approach will have been ignored 



until within 500 yards of them ; then the animals, if they are lying down, rise 



and shake themselves and gaze steadily in your direction. When they see that 



you are still approaching the whole troop generally commence walking uneasily 



to and fro, swishing their white tails from side to side with such violence that 



the whistling caused by this movement can be heard nearly a quarter of a mile 



away. Sometimes they will continue this operation for a considerable time, 



occasionally giving a savage shake to their heads, accompanied by a skittish 



buck. Then the whole herd, led generally, though not always, by an old cow, 



prepare to run, affording as a spectacle one of the most curious — I might even 



say, one of the grandest — sights in Nature. Not only are the attitudes of the 



animals themselves, as they alternately kick, buck, roll and fight, queer in the 



extreme, but the various formations which a large troop goes through on the Veldt 



are in themselves fascinating to the onlooker. Very strange and very interesting 



is it to witness the facility with which the leaders of the various strings into 



which a herd splits up, conform to each other's movements in spreading out 



over the Veldt, and again swinging together as the herd becomes reunited. As 



a rule a troop of twelve keeps in one string while performing their evolutions. 



A herd of twenty-five or thirty splits into two detachments, forming separate 



lines which diverge when starting to run, but always eventually reunite, 



however complicated their manoeuvres ; whilst a herd numbering about fifty 



will separate into three, or even four, distinct curves, two moving to the right 



and two to the left ; but all, as a rule, swing into one line again before coming 



to a halt. Sometimes individuals mistake their positions, and are punished 



accordingly ; it is a common sight, as the herd stops and faces the hunter, to 



see a couple of bulls, or even cows, drop on their knees and fight furiously for 



a minute, displaying a fierceness and energy that might be disastrous to a less 



thick-skinned and wiry animal than the black wildebeest. 



Most antelopes, when stopping in the middle of a gallop to survey an 

 intruder, gradually slacken their pace to a walk, and fixing their gaze on him, 

 come slowly to a halt with their faces to the foe. Not so the black wildebeest. 

 When about to halt the troop may be seen slowly cantering along, till the 

 leader, without stopping for a moment to have a look, suddenly turns round, 

 retraces its steps, followed in single file by the whole herd ; and not until the 

 very last one has formed up to the new front do they pull up. Black 

 wildebeests never travel very far in their first runs after being alarmed— a herd 



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