BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 429 
forest. In one place, by a stream, among the twisted, close¬ 
growing stems of big and little trees, in which lions habitu¬ 
ally made their beds, and evidently passed much of their 
time, we also roused a bushbuck out of its bed. This bush- 
buck had used this bed for some days, and it was within 
twenty paces of a trail along which the lions had been con¬ 
tinually passing and repassing. Evidently the buck, as a 
finished diver and skulker in thick bush, able to dodge at full 
speed through the most tangled cover, felt entirely safe 
from any rush or spring of his huge and formidable neigh¬ 
bors. Bushbucks are browsers, but sometimes eat grass 
also. In the Lado they were feeding on leaves, twig tops, 
and pods of the yellow-barked acacia. In the Uasin Gishu 
they were feeding on leaves, wild olives, and a little grass. 
The buck is much larger than the doe, and is by far the most 
truculent of all the lesser antelopes; indeed for its size it is 
probably the most formidable fighter among all the ante¬ 
lopes, and its horns are very effective weapons. It will, 
when wounded, charge a man, and has even been known to 
kill one, as recorded by Drummond; it has also been known 
to kill both the leopard and the wild dog—Drummond re¬ 
cording the former feat, and Stevenson-Hamilton the latter. 
On one occasion, when we were beating a reed bed, a doe 
rushed back through the line of beaters, and fairly charged 
one beater, knocking him over with her rush. It is a very 
curious thing that among the tragelaphs it should be the 
little bushbuck which is so fierce, while the larger members 
of the subfamily, the eland and even the koodoo, are mild 
and gentle animals by comparison. 
