48 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
more familiar domestic categories. Study has shown that 
sheep and goats grade into one another among the wild 
species; and the so-called antelopes include forms differing 
from one another quite as sharply as any of them differ 
from their kinsfolk that are represented in the farmyard. 
Zebra share with hartebeest the distinction of being 
the most abundant game animal on the plains, throughout 
the whole Athi region. The two creatures are fond of as¬ 
sociating together, usually in mixed herds; but some¬ 
times there will merely be one or two individuals of one 
species in a big herd of the other. They are sometimes, 
though less frequently than the hartebeest, found in open 
bush country; but they live in the open plains by choice. 
I could not find out that they had fixed times for rest¬ 
ing, feeding, and going to water. They and the harte- 
beests formed the favorite prey of the numerous lions of 
the neighborhood; and I believe that the nights, even 
the moonlight nights, were passed by both animals under a 
nervous strain of apprehension, ever dreading the attack 
of their arch enemy, and stampeding from it. Their stam¬ 
pedes cause the utmost exasperation to the settlers, for 
when in terror of the real or imaginary attack of a lion, 
their mad, heedless rush takes them through a wire fence 
as if it were made of twine and pasteboard. But a few 
months before my arrival a mixed herd of zebra and harte¬ 
beest, stampeded either by lions or wild dogs, rushed 
through the streets of Nairobi, several being killed by the 
inhabitants, and one of the victims falling just outside the 
Episcopal Church. The zebras are nearly powerless when 
seized by lions; but they are bold creatures against less 
formidable foes, trusting in their hoofs and their strong 
