ELEPHANT HUNTING 
265 
properly be called. It was bordered with sedge, and through 
the water-lilies on its surface we saw the reflection of the 
new moon after nightfall. Here and there thick forest came 
down to the brink, and through this, on opposite sides 
of the pond, deeply worn elephant paths, evidently travelled 
for ages, wound down to the water. 
That evening we hunted for bushbuck, but saw none. 
While sitting on a hillock at dusk, watching for game, a 
rhino trotted up to inspect us, with ears cocked forward 
and tail erect. A rhino always has something comic about 
it, like a pig, formidable though it at times is. This one 
carried a poor horn, and therefore we were pleased when at 
last it trotted off without obliging us to shoot it. We saw 
new kinds of whydah birds, one with a yellow breast, one 
with white in its tail; at this altitude the cocks were still 
in full plumage, although it was just past the middle of 
September; whereas at Naivasha they had begun to lose 
their long tail feathers nearly two months previously. 
On returning to camp we received a note from Cuning- 
hame saying that Heller had been taken seriously sick, and 
Tarlton had to go to them. This left Kermit and me to 
take our two days’ hunt together. 
One day we got nothing. We saw game on the open 
downs, but it was too wary, and though we got within twenty- 
five yards of eland in thick cover, we could only make out 
a cow, and she took fright and ran without our ever getting 
a glimpse of the bull that was with her. Late in the after¬ 
noon we saw an elephant a mile and a half away, crossing 
a corner of the open downs. We followed its trail until 
the light grew too dim for shooting, but never overtook it, 
although at the last we could hear it ahead of us breaking 
