ELEPHANT HUNTING 
231 
the papyrus. I missed a bull^ and wounded another which I 
did not get. This was all the more exasperating because 
interspersed with the misses were some good shots: I killed 
a fine waterbuck cow at a hundred yards, and a buck 
tommy for the table at two hundred and fifty; and, after 
missing a handsome black and white, red-billed and red- 
legged jabiru, or saddle-billed stork, at a hundred and fifty 
yards, as he stalked through the meadow after frogs, I cut 
him down on the wing at a hundred and eighty, with the 
little Springfield rifle. The waterbuck spent the daytime 
outside, but near the edge of, the papyrus; I found them 
grazing or resting, in the open, at all times between early 
morning and late afternoon. Some of them spent most of 
the day in the papyrus, keeping to the watery trails made 
by the hippos and by themselves; but this was not the 
general habit, unless they had been persecuted. When 
frightened they often ran into the papyrus, smashing the 
dead reeds and splashing the water in their rush. They are 
noble-looking antelope, with long, shaggy hair, and their 
chosen haunts beside the lake were very attractive. Clumps 
of thorn-trees and flowering bushes grew at the edge of 
the tall papyrus here and there, and often formed a matted 
jungle, the trees laced together by creepers, many of them 
brilliant in their bloom. The climbing morning-glories some¬ 
times completely covered a tree with their pale-purple flow¬ 
ers; and other blossoming vines spangled the green over 
which their sprays were flung with masses of bright yellow. 
Four days" march from Naivasha, where we again left 
Mearns and Loring, took us to Neri. Our line of march 
lay across the high plateaus and mountain chains of the 
Aberdare range. The steep, twisting trail was slippery with 
