184 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
sharp-sighted, and hard to approach. Next to the cock 
ostrich in conspicuousness comes the wildebeest, because 
it shows black in most lights; yet when headed away from 
the onlooker, the sun will often make the backs of a herd 
look whitish in the distance. Wildebeest are warier than 
most other game. Round this camp the topi were as tame 
as the hartebeest; they look very dark in most lights, only 
less dark than the wildebeest, and so are also conspicuous. 
The hartebeest change from a deep brown to a light foxy 
red, according to the way they stand toward the sun; 
and when a herd was feeding away from us, their white 
sterns showed when a very long way off. The zebra’s 
stripes cease to be visible after he is three hundred yards 
off, but in many lights he glistens white in the far dis¬ 
tance, and is then very conspicuous; on this day I came 
across a mixed herd of zebra and eland in thin bush, 
and when still a long way off the zebras caught the eye, 
while their larger companions were as yet hardly to be 
made out without field-glasses. The gazelles usually show 
as sandy colored, and are therefore rather less conspicuous 
than the others when still; but they are constantly in mo¬ 
tion, and in some lights show up as almost white. When 
they are far off the sun rays may make any of these ani¬ 
mals look very dark or very light. In fact all of them are 
conspicuous at long distances, and none of them make any 
effort to escape observation as do certain kinds that haunt 
dense bush and forest. But constant allowance must be 
made for the wide variations among individuals. Ordi¬ 
narily tommies are the tamest of the game, with the big 
gazelle and the zebra next; but no two herds will behave 
alike; and I have seen a wildebeest bull look at me motion- 
