ch. xi] GERUNUK AND WATER-BUCK 301 
kind we found a pale-coloured, very long-tailed tree- 
mouse, in its nest, which was a ball of chopped straw. 
Spurfowl and francolin abounded, their grating cries 
being heard everywhere. I shot a few, as well as 
one or two sandgrouse ; and with the rifle I knocked 
off the heads of two guinea-fowls. The last feat 
sounds better in the narration than it was in the 
performance ; for I wasted nearly a beltful of car¬ 
tridges in achieving it, as the guineas were shy and ran 
rapidly through the tall grass. I also expended a large 
number of cartridges before securing a couple of 
gerunuk; the queer, lojng- legged, long-necked antelope 
were wary, and as soon as they caught a glimpse of me 
off they would go at a stealthy trot or canter through 
the bushes, with neck outstretched. They had a curious 
habit of rising on their hind-legs to browse among the 
bushes. I do not remember seeing any other antelope 
act in this manner. There were water-buck along the 
river banks, and I shot a couple of good bulls; they 
belonged to the southern and eastern species, which has 
a light-coloured ring around the rump, whereas the 
western form, which 1 saw at Naivasha, has the whole 
rump light-coloured. They like the neighbourhood of 
lakes and rivers. I have seen parties of them resting 
in the open plains during the day, under trees which 
yielded little more shade than telegraph-poles. The 
handsome, shaggy-coated water-buck has not the high 
withers which mark the oryx, wildebeest, and harte- 
beest, and he carries his head and neck more like a stag 
or a wapiti bull. 
One day we went back from the river after giraffe. 
It must have been a year since any rain had fallen. 
The surface of the baked soil was bare and cracked, 
the sparse tussocks of grass were brittle straw, and 
