OCR Text |
Show 304 CAPT. H. G. C. SWAYNE ON THE [May 3, is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles way. There is not always much game to be got in the Haud; but a year ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by Europeans, I found one of these plains covered with herds of Hartebeestes, there being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one time, each herd containing three or four hundred individuals. Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on the outskirts and in spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or lying down. The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles from Berhera; and the game has probably been driven far beyond that point by now. The Hartebeeste bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three couples may be fighting round the same herd at one time. Often one of the bulls will be sent rolling head over heels. The easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans round above the wind to drive the Hartebeeste towards you, at the same time lying down in the grass. A shot may be got within fifty yards, but no one would care to shoot many Hartebeestes, as the trophy is poor. Often Oryxes and Scemmerring's Gazelles are seen in company with these great troops of Hartebeestes, but the Oryxes are much wilder. The Hartebeestes are rather tame, and they and the Scemmerring's Gazelles are always the last to move away. Hartebeestes have great curiosity, and rush round a caravan, halting now and then within two hundred yards to gaze. This sight is an extraordinary one, all the Antelopes having heavy and powerful forequarters, head, and chest, of a different shade of chestnut to the hindquarters, which are poor and fall away. In the midday haze on the plains they look like troops of Lions. The pace of the Hartebeeste is an ungraceful lumbering canter; but this is really the fleetest and most enduring of the Somali Antelopes. The largest herd I have ever seen must have contained a thousand individuals, packed closely together, and looking like a regiment of cavalry, the whole plain round being dotted with single bulls. The coat is glossy like that of a well-groomed horse. From their living so much in the open grass plains the Hartebeeste must live entirely on grass, for there is nothing else to eat; and it must be able to exist for several days without water. Hartebeestes are the favourite food of Lions, and once, when out with m y brother, I found a troop of three Lions sitting out on the open plains, ten miles from the nearest bush. They had evidently been out all night among the herds, and on their becoming gorged, the rising sun had found them disinclined to move. Hartebeeste horns vary greatly in shape and size. There are the short massive horns and the long pointed ones, and all the gradations between. Some curve forward, with the points thrown back ; others curve outwards in the same plane as the forehead, the points turning onward. |