586 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
the antelope of a given band or bands shy to a degree; and 
in the afternoon, on our return to camp, they would let us 
pass reasonably close, even to windward of them, without 
showing alarm. Their eyesight was very good, and also 
their sense of smell. At night they were apparently more 
alert and uneasy than during the day. Perhaps this is true 
of all game, although, on the other hand, it is also true that 
game will allow a man to come closer in the darkness than 
in daylight. They rarely went where leopards could get 
at them; but lions occasionally preyed on them, although 
preferring the larger hartebeests or zebras; and they were 
objects of chase both for cheetahs and hunting hounds. 
They never sought to hide themselves or escape observation, 
although the adult males, which, unlike the females and 
young males, have no black side stripe, could, perhaps, be 
called concealingly colored—certainly as compared with 
impalla or Tommies or hartebeests or steinboks. Their 
trust was in their speed, eyesight, scent, and wariness. 
Sometimes, in time of drought, most of them desert a given 
district, in common with the other game, leaving only a few 
individuals behind. In other regions, as on the Athi and 
Kapiti Plains, they remain in practically the same country 
from year’s end to year’s end or make a shift of a few miles 
only. At any one time a herd will usually locate itself in 
a given area of a few square miles and lead a fairly regular 
and ordered life, so that each day at about the same time 
the individuals can be found in or near the same place 
doing about the same thing. While staying in a permanent 
camp or on a ranch we would frequently grow acquainted 
with some gazelle herd which, if unmolested, we could 
almost always find within a mile or two of the spot to 
