24 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo by Heller. Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons 

 TWO HIKUYU BOYS, FIRST ELEPHANT CAMP 



Still, many of them are wicked, and they 

 kill a good many people. When you get 

 close to them and watch them for a time 

 you will note that they are perpetually 

 in motion. I have never seen an elephant 

 entirely still. He will flap one ear ; then 

 he will suddenly put up his trunk and 

 curl it and try to see if he can smell 

 anything; then he will shift from one 

 foot to another. They never seem to 

 stand entirely still. When we were 

 camping in the Lado, hunting white 

 rhinoceroses, there were a good many 

 elephants around. We had obtained our 

 elephant series and did not want to molest 

 them. Once, when walking about a mile 

 and a half from camp, we suddenly saw 

 a herd of 50 or 60 elephants accompanied 

 by a flock of a couple of hundred white 

 cow herons. When we first saw the ele- 

 phants they were in an open flat, where 

 the long grass had been burned. As the 



elephants walked through the short grass 

 the herons marched alongside, catching 

 the grasshoppers put up. As soon as 

 they came to long grass all the herons 

 flew up and lit on the backs of the ele- 

 phants. There was one little pink ele- 

 phant calf and two herons perched on 

 its back. The elephants evidently did not 

 mind the birds ; otherwise they could 

 have removed them with their trunks. 

 Those elephants were quite indifferent to 

 our presence if we did not come too 

 near. While looking at them we heard 

 Dr. Mearns shooting birds around camp ; 

 but it did not disturb the elephants. 

 They stayed two days in the neighbor- 

 hood, and we got as close a look at them 

 as we wished. We did not want to have 

 to shoot any of them ; and, as an elephant 

 cow will often attack a man if it thinks 

 he is menacing her calf, we had to be 

 cautious about going too close. 



