IOO 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
stock of grain for the men, and as the natives would 
readily exchange their grain for our meat, the more we 
sent to Taveta, the better we were able to economise 
our stock of cloth, &c. As to our own commissariat, 
what with small gazelle venison, guinea-fowl (horned 
species), yellow-throated spur-fowl, and sand-grouse, 
we did not fare badly ; the latter differ from those I 
have shot on the Nile, in being larger and of darker 
plumage. 
The next day II- killed a fair male and female 
Granti and another hartebeest. I went into the bush 
on the south side of our camp, in the hopes of coming 
across buffalo, but though I saw some fresh tracks, I 
did not sight any of the beasts. I was lucky enough, 
however, to get a beautiful specimen of the lesser kudu 
(Strejisiceros Imberbis) with good symmetrical horns ; 
a lucky shot hit him just before he galloped behind 
a bush, the bullet passing through the neck. These 
antelope are nearly as big as ordinary red-deer, of a 
grey colour, with eight or nine thin white stripes 
running down the flanks; they are not very numerous 
in this part of Africa, and we did not see more than 
six or eight, and only shot two during the whole of 
our trip. Jackson told me they were plentiful on the 
coast near the banks of the Wami and Tana rivers, 
but that they always frequented thick bush. 
About midnight, as there was a good moon, I took 
my post in the tree where a platform had been pre¬ 
pared, and there I sat and watched for the remainder 
of the night. But although I heard the frequent howls 
