HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 253 
terise this neighbourhood, their chief haunts being on 
the south—that is, within the “Reserve,” though they 
wander everywhere. We saw, besides, most of the 
ordinary game, but not a sign of oryx. A small 
antelope that I hit among bush, merely breaking a 
hind-leg low down, gave opportunity for a wonderful 
exhibition of spooring by Yama and Salim, who held its 
tiny hoof-marks through the roughest ground and long 
grass for quite half-a-mile. It proved to be a steinbuck, 
female, weight 23 J lbs. clean. To complete our collec¬ 
tions, we each shot a hartebeest cow or two here (Bubodis 
cokei), my brother securing an unusually fine specimen, 
the horns exceeding 17 ins. The Coke’s hartebeests of 
Simba varied in type from those of the Athi Plains in 
their darker red pelts and in the form of horn. Those 
of the Athi animals are distinctly angular and bracket¬ 
shaped, whereas at Simba the horns display a more 
even symmetrical curve, as shown in drawing on p. 254, 
which also illustrates the upright growth of the horns 
in an immature example of this species. 1 shot my 
second zebra here, a stallion, but smaller than those 
obtained on the Athi and in the Rift. Several zebra 
seen here w r ere quite red in colour, the result of rolling 
in the ruddy soil. 
No two zebras are alike in their striping. Not only 
so, but each zebra differs in pattern on one side as com¬ 
pared with the other. This is easily seen on examining 
a flat skin. Three such lie before me, and in no single 
stripe is there regularity or repetition. Though corre¬ 
sponding pairs of stripes start from the dorsal ridge more 
or less equal—never quite so—yet each individual stripe 
quickly develops a different form. Should that on the 
right be carried continuously down to the ventral line, 
its fellow on the left w T ill either bifurcate or blend with 
its immediate neighbour, whether in front or behind. 
Another may break off abruptly, or perhaps be inter¬ 
rupted by a broken white line. Not a single pair runs 
similar throughout, though a curious co-relation is nearly 
always apparent. 
