13G 
African Game Trails 
flock of herons perched on the papyrus tops. 
We did not see any of the red-billed tick- 
birds on the buffalo; indeed, the only ones 
that we saw happened to be on domestic 
cattle. At night, the buffalo sometimes came 
right into the cultivated fields, and even into 
the garden close by the Boer farmer’s house; 
and once at night he had shot a bull. The 
bullet went through the heart but the animal 
ran to the papyrus swamp, and was found 
next day dead just within the edge. Usu¬ 
ally the main herd, of bulls, cows, and calves, 
kept together; but there were outlying bulls 
found singly or in small parties. Not only 
the natives but the whites were inclined to 
avoid the immediate neighborhood of the 
papyrus swamp, for there had been one or 
two narrow escapes from unprovoked at¬ 
tacks by the buffalo. The farmer told us 
that a man who was coming to see him had 
been regularly followed by three bulls, who 
pursued him for quite a distance. There 
is no doubt that under certain circum¬ 
stances buffalo, in addition to showing 
themselves exceedingly dangerous oppo¬ 
nents when wounded by hunters, become 
truculent and inclined to 
take the offensive them¬ 
selves. There are places 
in East Africa where as 
regards at least certain 
herds this seems to be the 
case; and in Uganda the 
buffalo have caused such 
loss of life, and such dam¬ 
age to the native planta¬ 
tions, that they are now 
ranked as vermin and not 
as game, and their killing 
is encouraged in every 
possible way. The list of 
white hunters that have 
been killed by buffalo is 
very long, and includes a 
number of men of note, 
while accidents to na¬ 
tives are of constant oc¬ 
currence. 
The morning after 
making our camp, we 
started at dawn for the 
buffalo ground, Kermit 
and I, Cuninghame and 
Heatley, and the Boer 
farmer with three big, 
powerful dogs. We 
walked near the edge of 
the swamp. Thewhydah 
birds were continually 
ipyrus' grass. bobbing up and down in 
same may be only five f ron f- Q f u g a g J-Jjgy r 0 g e 
and fell on their dancing- 
places, while the Kavi- 
rondo cranes called mournfully all around. 
Before we had gone two miles, buffalo 
were spied, well ahead, feeding close to the 
papyrus. The line of the papyrus which 
marked the edge of the swamp was not 
straight, but with projections and indenta¬ 
tions, and by following it closely and cut¬ 
ting cautiously across the points, the oppor¬ 
tunity for stalking was good. As there was 
not a tree of any kind anywhere near, we 
had to rely purely on our shooting to prevent 
damage from the buffalo. Kermit and I 
