ch. viii] RUBBING-POSTS 183 
same kind of game flee in mad fright when twice the 
distance to windward. Sometimes there are inexplicable 
variations between the conduct of beasts in one locality 
and in another. In East Africa the hyenas seem only 
occasionally to crunch the long bones of the biggest 
dead animals; whereas Cuninghame, who pointed out 
this fact to me, stated that in South Africa the hyenas, 
of the same kind, always crunched up the big bones, 
eating both the marrow and fragments of the bone 
itself. 
Now and then the game will choose a tree as a 
rubbing-post, and if it is small will entirely destroy the 
tree; and I have seen them use for the same purpose 
an oddly-shaped stone, one corner of which they had 
worn quite smooth. They have stamping-grounds, 
small patches of bare earth from which they have 
removed even the roots of the grass and bushes by the 
trampling of their hoofs, leaving nothing but a pool of 
dust. One evening I watched some zebras stringing 
slowly along in a line which brought them past a couple 
of these stamping-grounds. As they came in succession 
to each bare place half the herd, one after another, lay 
down and rolled to and fro, sending up spurts of dust so 
thick that the animal was hidden from sight; while 
perhaps a companion, which did not roll, stood near by, 
seemingly to enjoy the dust. 
On this same evening we rode campward facing a 
wonderful sunset. The evening was lowering and over¬ 
cast. The darkening plains stretched dim and vague 
into the far distance. The sun went down under a 
frowning sky, behind shining sheets of rain, and it 
turned their radiance to an angry splendour of gold and 
murky crimson. 
At this camp the pretty little Livingstone’s wheatears 
