28 
ON SAFARI 
possibly neither. Elmi’s impetuosity in any case lost 
me the second. Both shots at the first had missed. I 
was unlucky with leopards this trip. A few days later 
I lost another good chance through the same linguistic 
curse. There were some waterbuck on a rocky ridge. 
Whilst stalking these, Elmi spied a leopard and explained 
something which I did not understand, but he was keen, 
and I followed. We reached a bare grass-opening. A 
single thorn-tree stood in its centre, and beneath that 
one tree lay the leopard, in shortish grass, scarce fifty 
yards away. i£ Shoot/’ whispered Elmi; adding, “ In the 
bushes , lying down.” Still imagining we were after the 
waterbuck, which I presumed had moved, I scanned 
every bush on that koppie beyond—thrice as far away 
as lay the leopard. At last I saw, but too late. Ere I 
got my sights the leopard jumped. I waited in hopes 
he might stand; and stand he did, but not till close 
on the ridge of the koppie, 200 yards off. My ball 
splintered the rock a hand’s-breadth over his shoulder— 
a near thing, but a miss. Had Elmi only said, “ Under 
the tree,” that beast could hardly have escaped; what 
he did say was misleading in the last 
degree. 
Although describing this last animal 
as a leopard, I have since satisfied 
myself that it was in reality a cheetah, 
which habitually lies out thus in the 
open, whereas the leopard never does 
so. It is a noteworthy circumstance 
that the cheetah, though in general 
appearance closely resembling a leopard, 
and certainly allied to the Felidce, yet 
possesses a dog-foot—that is, its claws 
are blunt and hardly, if at all, retractile. 
A charming feature of the shooting 
picked up on enderit. in East Africa is the bush-stalking. 
Now, stalking in bush may appear 
a simple problem, and so, no doubt, with a single animal, 
when stationary, it sometimes is. Such chances, however. 
