A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 139 
a German specialist who had divided the African buffalo 
into fifteen or twenty different species, based upon differ¬ 
ences in various pairs of horns. The worth of such fine 
distinctions, when made on insufficient data, can be gath¬ 
ered from the fact that on the principles of specific divi¬ 
sion adopted in the pamphlet in question, the three bulls we 
had shot would have represented certainly two and possi¬ 
bly three different species. 
Heller was soon on the ground with his skinning-tent 
and skinners, and the Boer farmer went back to fetch the 
ox wagon on which the skins and meat were brought in 
to camp. Laymen can hardly realize, and I certainly did 
not realize, what an immense amount of work is involved 
in preparing the skins of large animals such as buffalo, 
rhino, hippo, and above all elephant, in hot climates. On 
this first five weeks’ trip we got over seventy skins, includ¬ 
ing twenty-two species ranging in size from a dikdik to a 
rhino, and all of these Heller prepared and sent to the Smith¬ 
sonian. Mearns and Loring were just as busy shooting birds 
and trapping small mammals. Often while Heller would be 
off for a few days with Kermit and myself, Mearns and Loring 
would be camped elsewhere, in a region better suited for the 
things they were after. While at Juja Farm they went down 
the Nairobi in a boat to shoot water-birds, and saw many 
more crocodiles and hippo than I did. Loring is a remark¬ 
ably successful trapper of small mammals. I do not believe 
there is a better collector anywhere. Dr. Mearns, in addition 
to birds and plants, never let pass the opportunity to collect 
anything else from reptiles and fishes to land shells. More¬ 
over, he was the best shot in our party. He killed two great 
bustards with the rifle, and occasionally shot birds like 
