46 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 
always walking and standing in conspicuous places, and 
never seek to hide or take advantage of cover; while, 
on the contrary, the little grass and bush antelopes, like 
the duyker and steinbuck, trust very much to their 
power of hiding, and endeavour to escape the sight of 
their foes by lying absolutely still, in the hope of not 
being made out against their background. On the 
plains one sees the wildebeest farthest off and with 
most ease; the zebra and hartebeest next; the gazelle 
last. 
The wildebeest are very wary. While the hunter is 
still a long way off the animal will stop grazing and 
stand with head raised, the heavy shoulders and short 
neck making it unmistakable. Then, when it makes up 
its mind to allow no closer approach, it brandishes its 
long tail, springs and plunges, runs once or twice in 
semicircles, and is off, the head held much lower than 
the shoulders, the tail still lashing; and now and then a 
bull may toss up the dust with its horns. The herds of 
cows and calves usually contain one or two or more 
bulls; and in addition, dotted here and there over the 
plain, are single bulls or small parties of bulls, usually 
past their prime or not yet full grown. These bulls are 
often found in the company of hartebeests or zebras, 
and stray zebras and hartebeests are often found with the 
wildebeest herds. The stomachs of those I opened 
contained nothing but grass; they are grazers, not 
browsers. The hartebeest are much faster, and if 
really frightened speedily leave their clumsy-looking 
friends behind; but the wildebeest, as I have seen 
them, are by far the most wary. The wildebeest and 
zebra seemed to me to lie down less freely than the 
hartebeest; but I frequently came on herds of both 
lying down during the heat of the day. Sometimes 
