Evening star., 1923-12-02
Among Africa's Most Deadly and Vindictive Animals

scent or the sight of man. They A.
nally moved off quietly without
alarm.
l then knew that this herd. like the
Aberdare elephants. had had little or
no experience with men, and that
there was perhaps less to fear from
them than from the traditional buff
falo Of the sportsmen. So, going back
to the main herd. 1 crept up boldly
to within a hundred yards Of them.
They saw me. faced about. closely
inspecting me, but with no sign of
alarm.
1t was approaching dusk and in.
this great black mass it was difficult
to pick out good pair of horns ex-
cept with the aid of glasses. I
carefully located fine bull and then
shot, as l supposed. at the one 1 had
located. AS l fired the animals bolt
ed, first away. then back toward me.
They wheeled. ran halfway between
the dead animal and myself, and pass
ing on about a hundred yards to the
right. wheeled about again and stood
watching me. the bulls in front. lined
up like soldiers. the calves and the
cows in the background.
On coming up to the dead animal
I found, much to my regret, that !
had shot cow and not the bull !
had picked out through the glasses.
l returned to camp feeling that
now, at last, from this herd living
apparently In the open. we should
have relatively little difficulty in
completing our series of specimens.
On the following morning. much to
our disappointment, our first glimpse
of the herd was just as 1t disappeared
in the thorn bush along the bank of
the river.
DURING seven days of continual
hunting, that herd which had
been Indifferent and unsuspecting at
the beginning. like the elephants, be-
came cautious, vigilant and aggres-
sive. For instance, on one occasion
near the close Of the week, after hay-
ing spent the day trying to locate the
herd, / suddenly came face to face
with them Just at the edge of the
bush at night on my way back to
camp. They were tearing along at
good pace. apparently having been
alarmed. stepped to one side and
crouched in the low grass while they
passed me in a cloud of dust at
twenty-five or thirty yards. Even
had ! been able to select desirable
specimens at this time / should have
been afraid to shoot for fear Of get
ting into difficulties when they had
located my position.
1 turned and followed them RAPIDLY
as they sped away over the hard
ground until the noise of their stam-
pede suddenly stopped. / then decid-
ed that it was best to get to some
point of vantage and await further
developments. l climbed an acacia
tree that enabled me to look over the
top of the bush. Fifty yards ahead /
could see about fifty buffaloes lined
up in a little open patch looking back
on their trail. AS l WAS perched in
the tree enedavoring to pick out a
desirable animal, l suddenly discov-
cred lone old bull buffalo coming
from the bush almost directly under
meath me. shifting and snuffins this
way and that. Very slowly, very eau
tiously he passed around the tree.
then back to the waiting herd, when
they all resumed their stampede and
made good their escape for the day.
One morning / came in sight of the
herd just as 1t was entering the thorn
bush and followed hurriedly on the
trn trf itrS 10 ad nf hl
jungle l happened to catch sight of
the two black hoofs of an old cow be-
hind the low-hanging foliage. l stop
ped, expecting a charge. After a few
moments l backed slowly away until
l reached a tree where / halted to
await developments. STOPPING down,
/ could see the buffalo's nose and
black, beady eyes as she stood mo-
tionless. The rest of the herd had
gone on out of hearing and 1 think
she was quite alone in her proposed
attack.
After a few moments, apparently
realizing that her plan had failed, she
turned about and followed the herd,
moving very quietly at first, then
breaking into a gallop.
On the following day we came up
again with the herd toward evening
in the same region. AS We first saw
them they were too far away for us
to choose and shoot with certainty.
We managed to crawl 10 a fair-sized
tree midway between us and the herd,
and from the deep branches picked
out the young herd bull os the group.
When we had shot and he had disap-
peared into the bush, calf accom-
panied by its mother gave Us a fleet
ing glimpse of itself, with the result
that We added the calf to our series.
The herd disappeared into the bush
and after a few minutes we descend
ed from our perch and inspected the
calf, then started off in the direction
the wounded bull had taken, and
found him lying dead just a few yards
away.
This completed the series, much to
our great Joy, for by this time We
were thoroughly tired of buffalo
hunting. ItI had been long, hard
hunt and our safari as well as our
selves were considerably the worse
for wear. To shoot a half-dozen buf-
faloes is a very simple matter and
ought to be accomplished almost any
day in British East Africa or Uganda,
but to SELECT a series of a half dozen
that will have the greatest possible
scientific value by illustrating the de-
velopmentl from babyhood to old age,
is decidedly different.
THESE buffaloes of the Tana coun-
tx.I that found h.a Iaix