190 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
the younger ones wear a sleek and glossy coat of 
black hair), and their horns are strikingly massive, 
with frontlets almost meeting, and varying in depth 
from twelve to fifteen inches. In the young bulls 
this frontlet is absent, the centre of the forehead being 
merely covered with thick skin and hair. The horns 
are corrugated and rough, except at the extremities, 
which are smooth and polished, and curve inwards. 
It is the presence of the massive frontlet protecting 
the major part of the skull that makes a head shot 
so hazardous to the sportsman, who, in the event of a 
charge, if armed with a heavy rifle, had best fire at 
the chest. This shot my later experience led me to 
consider the most deadly. Buffalo, like all other wild* 
animals, are naturally very shy and unaggressive, but, 
once attacked and injured, become the most dangerous 
and vicious of any beasts I have encountered. Their 
habits are the exact opposite of those of the rhino, 
as they lie up in the thick bush during the day, and 
only seek the open plains to feed during' the cool of 
the morning and evening. In the bush they are 
almost safe from the most skilful hunter, as they 
invariably see or hear him first., and taking alarm, 
plough a headstrong way through the dense covert 
for miles. The glimpse of a horn or of a tail erect 
and a cloud of dust is the usual reward of the best- 
conducted stalk after buffalo in the bush. When 
wounded in the open they at once make for the 
thickest covert in the neighbourhood and then face 
about, and with head down lie in wait for the enemy, 
