HUNTING IN THE SOTIK 
175 
shallow rain pools, seemingly once every twenty-four 
hours; and I saw one going to water at noon, and others 
just at dark; and their hours for feeding and resting were 
also irregular, though they were apt to lie down or stand 
motionless during the middle of the day. Doubtless in 
very hot weather they prefer to rest under a tree; but we 
were hunting in cool weather, during which they paid no 
heed whatever to the sun. Their sight is very bad, their 
scent and hearing acute. 
On this day Kermit was shooting from his left shoulder, 
and did very well, killing a fine Roberts’ gazelle, and three 
topi; I also shot a topi bull, as Heller wished a good series 
for the National Museum. The topi and wildebeest I shot 
were all killed at long range, the average distance for the 
first shot being over three hundred and fifty yards; and in 
the Sotik, where hunters were few, the game seemed if any¬ 
thing shyer than on the Athi Plains, where hunters were 
many. But there were wide and inexplicable differences 
in this respect among the animals of the same species. One 
day I wished to get a doe tommy for the museum; I saw 
scores, but they were all too shy to let me approach within 
shot; yet four times I passed within eighty yards of bucks 
of the same species which paid hardly any heed to me. 
Another time I walked for five minutes alongside a big 
party of Roberts’ gazelles, within a hundred and fifty yards, 
trying in vain to pick out a buck worth shooting; half an 
hour afterward I came on another party which contained 
such a buck, but they would not let me get within a 
quarter of a mile. 
Wildebeest are usually the shyest of all game. Each 
herd has its own recognized beat, to which it ordinarily 
