184 
HUNTING IN THE SOTIK [ch. viii 
or chats were very familiar, flitting within a few yards 
of the tents. They were the earliest birds to sing. Just 
before our eyes could distinguish the first faint streak of 
dawn, first one and then another of them would begin 
to sing, apparently either on the ground or in the air, 
until there was a chorus of their sweet music. Then 
they were silent again until the sun was about to rise. 
We always heard them when we made a very early 
start to hunt. By the way, with the game of the plains 
and the thin bush, we found that nothing was gained 
by getting out early in the morning ; we were quite as 
likely to get what we wanted in the evening, or, indeed, 
at high noon. 
The last day at this camp Kermit, Tarlton, and I 
spent on a twelve-hour lion hunt. I opened the day 
inauspiciously, close to camp, by missing a zebra, which 
we wished for the porters. Then Kermit, by a good 
shot, killed a tommy buck with the best head we had 
yet got. Early in the afternoon we reached our objec¬ 
tive—some high koppies, broken by cliffs and covered 
with brush. There were klipspringers on these koppies 
—little rock-loving antelopes, with tiny hoofs and queer 
brittle hair ; they are marvellous jumpers, and continu¬ 
ally utter a bleating whistle. I broke the neck of one 
as it ran at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards ; but 
the shot was a fluke, and did not make amends for the 
way I had missed the zebra in the morning. Among 
the thick brush on these hills were huge euphorbias, 
aloes bearing masses of orange flowers, and a cactus-like 
ground plant with pretty pink blossoms. All kinds of 
game from the plains, even rhino, had wandered over 
these hill-tops. 
But what especially interested us was that we im¬ 
mediately found fresh beds of lions, and one regular 
