GRANTS GAZELLE 
51 
CH. Il] 
again I found where hartebeests—and, more rarely, 
Grant’s gazelles—had in large numbers deposited their 
droppings for some time in one spot. Hartebeest are 
homely creatures, with long faces, high withers, and 
showing, when first in motion, a rather ungainly gait; 
but they are among the swiftest and most enduring 
of antelope, and when at speed their action is easy 
and regular. When pursued by a dog they will often 
play before him, just as a tommy will, taking great 
leaps with all four legs inclined backward, evidently in 
a spirit of fun and derision. In the stomachs of those I 
killed, as in those of the zebras, I found only grass and 
a few ground-plants ; even in the open bush or thinly- 
wooded country they seemed to graze, and not browse. 
One fat and heavy bull weighed 340 pounds ; a very old 
bull, with horns much worn down, 299 pounds ; and a 
cow in high condition, 315 pounds. 
The Grant’s gazelle is the most beautiful of all these 
plains creatures. It is about the size of a big white-tail 
deer; one heavy buck which I shot, although with poor 
horns, weighed 171 pounds. The finest among the old 
bucks have beautiful lyre-shaped horns, over two feet 
long, and their proud, graceful carriage and lightness of 
movement render them a delight to the eye. As 1 have 
already said, the young and the females have the dark 
side stripe which marks all the tommies ; but the old 
bucks lack this, and their colour fades into the brown 
or sandy of the dry plains far more completely than is 
the case with zebra or kongoni. Like the other game 
of the plains, they are sometimes found in small parties, 
or else in fair-sized herds, by themselves, and sometimes 
with other beasts ; I have seen a single fine buck in a 
herd of several hundred zebra and kongoni. The 
Thomson’s gazelles, hardly a third the weight of their 
