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ch. xi] ZEBRA AND WATERBUCK 
torn by the thorns into which we blundered during the 
final two hours’ walk in the darkness. It was hot, and 
we neither had nor wished for food, and the tepid water 
in the canteens lasted us through. The day I shot the 
giraffe the porters carrying the skin fell behind, and 
never got in until next morning. Coming back in the 
late twilight a party of the big zebra, their forms 
shadowy and dim, trotted up to us, evidently attracted 
by the horses, and accompanied us for some rods ; and 
a hedgehog, directly in our path, kept bleating loudly, 
like an antelope kid. 
The day we spent in taking care of the giraffe skin 
we, of course, made no hunt. However, in the after¬ 
noon I sauntered upstream a couple of miles to look for 
crocodiles. I saw none, but I was much interested in 
some zebra and waterbuck. The zebra were on the 
opposite side of the river, standing among some thorns, 
and at three, mid-afternoon, they came down to drink. 
Up to this time I had generally found zebra drinking in 
the evening or at night. Then I saw some waterbuck, 
also on the opposite bank, working their way toward 
the river, and seeing a well-marked drinking-place ahead 
I hastened toward it, and sat down in the middle of the 
broad game trail leading down to the water on my side. 
I sat perfectly still, and my clothes were just the colour 
of the ground, and the waterbuck never noticed me, 
though I was in plain view when they drank, just 
opposite me, and only about fifty yards off. There 
were four cows and a bull. It was four o’clock in the 
afternoon. The cows came first, one by one, and were 
very alert and suspicious. Each continually stopped 
and stood motionless, or looked in every direction, and 
gave little false starts of alarm. When they reached 
the green grass by the water’s edge each cropped a few 
