180 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
to charge. But a wart-hog boar which Kermit ran down 
the same day and shot with his revolver did charge, and 
wickedly. 
While running one of his cheetahs Kermit put up two 
old wildebeest bulls, and they joined in the procession, 
looking as if they too were pursuing the cheetah; the chee¬ 
tah ran first, the two bulls, bounding and switching their 
tails, came next, and Kermit, racing in the rear, gained 
steadily. Wildebeest are the oddest in nature and conduct, 
and in many ways the most interesting, of all antelopes. 
There is in their temper something queer, fiery, eccentric, 
and their actions are abrupt and violent. A single bull will 
stand motionless with head raised to stare at an intruder 
until the latter is quarter of a mile off; then down goes his 
head, his tail is lashed up and around, and off he gallops, 
plunging, kicking, and shaking his head. He may go 
straight away, he may circle round, or even approach nearer 
to, the intruder; and then he halts again to stare motion¬ 
less, and perhaps to utter his grunt of alarm and defiance. 
A herd when approached, after fixed staring will move off, 
perhaps at a canter. Soon the leaders make a half wheel, 
and lead their followers in a semicircle; suddenly a couple 
of old bulls leave the rest, and at a tearing gallop describe a 
semicircle in exactly the opposite direction, racing by their 
comrades as these canter the other way. With one accord 
the whole troop may then halt and stare again at the object 
they suspect; then off they all go at a headlong run, kick¬ 
ing and bucking, tearing at full speed in one direction, then 
suddenly wheeling in semicircles so abrupt as to be almost 
zigzags, the dust flying in clouds; and two bulls may sud¬ 
denly drop to their knees and for a moment or two fight 
