NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



to feed upon leaves, shoots, berries, tender grass 

 and roots. The latter it digs up with its hoofs. 

 I have known Bushbucks inhabit the sarne haunt 

 for a continuous period of ten years. 



On a friend's estate in Natal there happened to 

 be a particularly dense, sheltered and secluded patch 

 of bush. In this cover an old Bushbuck ram had 

 his home. He was shot, and every season for 

 many years a Bushbuck ram was found and killed 

 in this patch of bush. Although, in the neigh- 

 bourhood, a number of ewes inhabited the forest, 

 none of them were ever found in this particular 

 haunt. The Bushbuck ram is usually a dangerous 

 animal to approach when wounded. I have wit- 

 nessed many dogs and several men being either 

 killed or seriously wounded by these antelopes. 

 On one occasion' a Bushbuck ram was driven from 

 a patch of bush and wounded by a young farmer. 

 It made off up a small, blind kloof. The young 

 man, heedless of our warnings, went in after it. 

 In a short while we heard a double shot and then 

 silence. Making our way up the donga we found 

 our friend and the Bushbuck dead ; the latter's horns 

 had been driven in an upward direction through the 

 abdomen right up to the heart. 



On another occasion a ram was badly wounded, 

 and succeeded in reaching a patch of bush into 

 which it disappeared. Being some distance oflF, 

 the excited young man who had shot the buck 

 did not hear or heed my warning calls, and dashed 



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