ch. x] SPRINGHAAS 227 
can be killed. Springhaas live in big burrows, a number 
of them dwelling together in one community, the holes 
close to one another, and making what in the West we 
would call a “ town ” in speaking of prairie dogs. At 
night they come out to feed on the grass. They are as 
heavy as a big jack-rabbit, with short forelegs, and long 
hind-legs and tail, so that they look, and on occasion 
move, like miniature kangaroos, although, in addition to 
making long hops or jumps, they often run almost like 
an ordinary rat or rabbit. They are pretty creatures, 
fawn-coloured above and white beneath, with the 
terminal half of the tail very dark. In hunting them 
we simply walked over the flats for a couple of hours, 
flashing the bull’s-eye lantern on all sides, until we saw 
the light reflected back by a springhaas’s eyes. Then I 
would approach to within range, and hold the lantern in 
my left hand, so as to shine both on the sight and on the 
eyes in front, resting my gun on my left wrist. The 
No. 3 shot in the Fox double-barrel would always 
do the business, if I held straight enough. There was 
nothing but the gleam of the eyes to shoot at, and this 
might suddenly be raised or lowered as the intently 
watching animal crouched on all-fours or raised itself on 
its hind-legs. I shot half a dozen, all that the naturalists 
wanted. Then I tried to shoot a fox, but the moon had 
risen from behind a cloud bank. I had to take a long 
shot, and missed, but my companions killed several, and 
found that they were a new species of the peculiar 
African long-eared fox. 
While waiting for the safari to get ready, Kermit 
went off on a camping trip and shot two bushbuck, 
while I spent a couple of days trying for sing-sing water- 
buck on the edge of the papyrus. I missed a bull, and 
wounded another which I did not get. This was all the 
