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Show 652 MR. R. CRAWSHAY ON THE [Dec. 2, deep. In such places one has to undergo cruel torture from reed-cuts and mosquitoes, the latter of the fiercest type and even in broad noonday most vicious. Nature has provided the Water-buck with a tougher hide and coarser hair than any other of his kind, but even these are not proof against the rank tall " mabandi " grass and spear-like " matele " reeds, and I have noticed that the legs of some I have killed have suffered considerably, the skin on the fetlocks and pasterns being cut clean through. I have seen more of Water-bucks than of any other Antelopes, and had ample opportunity for observing their habits at Nkanga and other places, where I have actually lived among them. They have a habit, after drinking, of wandering considerable distances along the sandy shore of the Lake; Elands, I have noticed, do the same ; this I have seen on bright moonlight nights, when I have camped on the Lake shore. When alarmed and beating a retreat, they occasionally give vent to a low snorting bark, and move off at a smooth and, if I may use the expression, '* wooden " trot; unless wounded or hard-pressed in pursuit, they seldom canter or gallop, and they do not bound or jump as do almost all their kind. Water-bucks have an extraordinarily powerful scent, like that from Sheep but stronger, and their haunts and paths retain it for weeks and even months after the animals have left them. Lions, it has occurred to me, seldom kill a Water-buck, and I can only attribute this either to their dislike to this scent, or to the habit Water-bucks have of lying in open places where Lions cannot easily get at them. Buffaloes appear to m e the natural prey of tbe Lion, but compared with Koodoo, "Impala," and Bush-buck, it is seldom that Water-bucks fall victims. The meat of the Water-buck is quite the worst of all African venison that I have eaten, its grain being considerably coarser than that of an old bull Buffalo, while at the same time it has a very strong flavour, too strong by far for stomachs undermined by a malarial climate; natives, however, to a man eat it, and, so far as I know, they have no evil superstitions about the animal itself, such as they have with the Bush-buck, a small red-coloured Antelope, the " Insa," and the Red River-hog (Potamochcerus penicillatus). I have heard it said by some that Water-bucks are unusually stupid ; such, however, has not been my experience ; no doubt they are at times confiding and offer an easy shot, but not more often, I should say, than any other Antelopes of the open plains. I think they possess greater vitality than any other of their kind, at least those I have met (though there is little to pick between a Water-buck and a Hartebeeste on the score of being hard-lived); and they are certainly more stoutly built, especially about the neck and legs, the latter being short, coarse, and even clumsy. Compared with other Antelopes they are by no means graceful, yet their beauty may be said to " consist in "their ugliness; " and if not actually useful, they are certainly ornamental to the vast wastes of swamp, grass, and reeds where they are generally found. |
