STRAY NOTES 
293 
what he told me) had only once seen an elephant 
lying. 
I cannot call to mind ever seeing either wildebeests 
or zebras do so in East Africa; though several such 
instances recur to memory in the case of sing-sing, 
waterbuck, gazelles, and (more rarely) of hartebeests 
and impala. The habit is more or less casual and 
accidental—not as in Europe, where one sees the deer 
(of all kinds), and goats also, regularly lie down by 
day. 
On writing to my brother to confirm or confute 
these remarks, he replies : “ It seems to me quite 
correct. One never sees game asleep. The best 
instance I can remember was on the Molo at Ya- 
Nabanda, where, to the west of the river, I found a 
company of Jackson’s hartebeests all lying down on a 
bare patch of red soil that exactly assimilated with their 
own colour. The details impressed themselves on my 
memory; for when I had stalked to within 250 yards, 
there intervened a belt of long grass through which I 
intended to creep close up; but in it there were some 
zebras feeding. After waiting a long time, as the zebras 
did not move, I sent Mehemet back, telling him to go 
round in a circuit to the windward, without showing. 
Soon after he had gone, the zebras suddenly threw up 
their heads and cantered off—the hartebeests, of course, 
also jumping up and moving away. Mehemet was back 
almost immediately, looking scared out of his wits. He 
said he had come on two lions stalking the zebras, and 
on looking in the direction he pointed out, I certainly 
saw some animal ‘ louping ’ away through the grass, 
but too far to distinguish. This was, so far as I can 
recollect, the only instance of seeing a herd of harte¬ 
beests (though I once or twice saw single animals) 
lying down.” 
W-adds : “ That zebra you fluked (see p. 107) 
was certainly standing asleep , and I never did see 
zebras lying down.” 
It should, however,-be added that during the intense 
