40 G 
African Game Trails 
the safari, the skeletons for the Museum. 
The night had been cool, but the day was 
sunny and hot. At first we rode through a 
broad valley, bounded by high, scrub-cov¬ 
ered hills. The banks of the dry stream 
were fringed with deep green acacias, and 
here and there in relief against their dark 
foliage flamed the orange-red flowers of the 
tall aloe clumps. With. the Springfield I 
shot a steinbuck and a lesser bustard. Then 
we came out on the vast rolling brown 
plains. With the Winchester I shot two 
zebra stallions, missing each standing, at 
long range, and then killing them as they 
ran; one after a two-miles hard gallop, on 
my brown pony, which had a good turn of 
speed. I killed a third zebra stallion with 
my Springfield, again missing it standing 
and killing it running. In mid-afternoon 
we spied our rhino, and getting near saw 
that it had good horns. It was in the mid¬ 
dle of the absolutely bare plain, and w: 
walked straight up to the dull-sighted, dull- 
witted beast; Kermit with his camera, I 
with the Holland double-barrel. The tick 
birds warned it, but it did not make us out 
until we were well within a hundred yards, 
when it trotted toward us, head and tail up. 
At sixty yards I put the heavy bullet straight 
into its chest, and knocked it flat with the 
blow; as it tried to struggle to its feet I 
again knocked it flat, with the left-hand 
barrel; butit needed two more bullets before 
it died, screaming like an engine whistle. 
Before I fired my last shot I had walked up 
directly beside the rhino; and just then 
Tarlton pointed me out a greater bustard, 
stalking along with unmoved composure 
at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards; 
I took the Springfield, and kneeling down 
beside the rhino’s hind-quarters I knocked 
over the bustard, and then killed the rhino. 
We rode into camp by moonlight. Both 
these rhinos had their stomachs filled with 
the closely chewed leaves and twig tips of 
short brush mixed with grass—rather thick¬ 
stemmed grass—and in one case with the 
pulpy, spiny leaves of low, ground-creep¬ 
ing euphorbia. 
At this camp we killed five poisonous 
snakes: a light-colored tree snake, two puff 
adders, and two seven-foot cobras. One of 
the latter three times “spat” or ejected its 
poison at its assailants, the poison coming 
out from the fangs like white films or 
threads, to a distance of several feet. A 
few years ago the singular power of this 
snake, and perhaps of certain other African 
species, thus to eject the poison at the face 
of an assailant was denied by scientists; but 
it is now well known. Selous had already 
told me of an instance which came under 
his own observation; and Tarlton had once 
been struck in the eyes and for the moment 
nearly blinded by the poison. He found 
that to wash the eyes with milk was of 
much relief. On the bigger puff adder, 
some four feet long, were a dozen ticks, 
some swollen to the size of cherries; appar¬ 
ently they were disregarded by their slug¬ 
gish and deadly host. Heller trapped 
some jackals, two species, and two striped 
hyenas; the first we had seen; apparently 
more timid and less noisy beasts than their 
bigger spotted brothers. 
One day Kermit had a curious experi¬ 
ence with a honey bird; a smallish bird, 
with its beak like a grosbeak’s and its toes 
like a wood-pecker’s, whose extraordinary 
habits as a honey guide are known to all 
the natives of Africa throughout its range. 
Kermit had killed an eland bull, and while 
he was resting, his gun bearers drew his at¬ 
tention to the calling of the honey bird near 
by. He got up, and as he approached the 
bird, it flew to another tree in front and 
again began its twitter. This was repeated 
again and again as Kermit walked after it. 
Finally the bird darted round behind his 
followers, in the direction from which they 
had come; and for a moment they thought 
it had played them false. But immediately 
afterward they saw that it had merely 
overshot its mark, and had now flown back 
a few rods to the honey tree, round which it 
was flitting, occasionally twittering. When 
they came toward the tree it perched silent 
and motionless in another, and thus con¬ 
tinued while they took some honey—a 
risky business, as the bees were vicious. 
They did not observe what the bird then 
did; but Cuninghame told me that in one 
instance where a honey bird led him to 
honey he carefully watched it and saw 
it picking up either bits of honey and 
comb, or else, more probably, the bee 
grubs out of the comb, he could not be 
certain which. 
To miy mind no more interesting incident 
occurred at this camp. 
