52 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. it 
larger kinsfolk, are found scattered everywhere ; they 
are not as highly gregarious as the zebra and kongoni, 
and are not found in such big herds ; but their little 
bands—now a buck and several does, now a couple of 
does with their fawns, now three or four bucks together, 
now a score of individuals—are scattered everywhere on 
the flats. Like the Grants, their flesh is delicious, and 
they seem to have much the same habits. But they 
have one very marked characteristic—their tails keep 
up an incessant nervous twitching, never being still for 
more than a few seconds at a time, while the larger 
gazelle in this part of its range rarely moves its tail at 
all. They are grazers, and they feed, rest, and go to 
water at irregular times, or, at least, at different times 
in different localities ; and although they are most apt 
to rest during the heat of the day, I have seen them 
get up soon after noon, having lain down for a couple 
of hours, feed for an hour or so, and then lie down 
again. In the same way the habits of the game as to 
migration vary with the different districts, in Africa as 
in America. There are places where all the game, 
perhaps notably the wildebeests, gather in herds of 
thousands, at certain times, and travel for scores of 
miles, so that a district which is teeming with game at 
one time may be almost barren of large wild life at 
another. But my information was that around the 
Kapiti plains there was no such complete and extensive 
shift. If the rains are abundant and the grass rank, 
most of the game will be found far out in the middle of 
the plains; if, as was the case at the time of my visit, 
there has been a long drought, the game will be found 
ten or fifteen miles away, near or among the foothills. 
Unless there was something special on, like a lion or 
rhinoceros hunt, I usually rode off followed only by my 
