400 
African Game Trails 
stone’s wheat-ears or chats were very famil¬ 
iar, 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 an¬ 
other of them would begin to sing, appar¬ 
ently either on the ground or in the air, un¬ 
til 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 apt to get what we wanted 
in the evening or indeed at high noon. 
The last day at this camp Kermit, Tarl- 
ton, and I spent on a twelve-hours’ 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 gotten. Early in the after¬ 
noon we reached our objective, 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 continually 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 
Mr, Roosevelt, Tarlton, and the big lion shot'by Mr. Roosevelt.—Page 405. 
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt. 
