correspondent meant to say was that the colonel had secured a
sing-sing waterbuck _and_ a topi. The word "waterbuck" was omitted
because he assumed that everybody at home would know that a "sing-sing"
was a species of waterbuck, wherein he was mistaken, for comparatively
few people in America know what a sing-sing is, or, for that matter,
what a topi is, or what a Uganda cob is. When his despatch had been
transmitted through several operators on its way to the States the word
"sing-sing" became "singing" and was supposed to be an adjective
describing the topi. Hence the "singing topi."

The American paragraphers also had fun with the word "topi," for they
thought a topi was a sun hat much worn in the hot countries. From this
course of reasoning it was probably assumed that Colonel Roosevelt had
shot some kind of a singing sun hat, which was certainly enough to cause
comment.

There are two kinds of waterbuck that the East African hunter will find
in the course of his travels, the common waterbuck which we saw in such
numbers on the Tana River, and the Defassa, or "sing-sing" waterbuck,
which is found in the higher altitudes up toward the Mau escarpment and
Mount Elgon. Both of these varieties of waterbuck are beautiful animals,
almost as large as a steer, and with great sweeping horns that often
exceed twenty-five inches in length. In some instances the horns have
been nearly three feet long, but the longest one that our party secured
was only twenty-nine inches in length. As a trophy for a wall there are
few heads in Africa more noble than that of the waterbuck.

In all our wanderings, during which we saw at least two thousand
waterbuck, we found that the does outnumbered the males by ten to one
and that usually in a herd of twenty there would be only one big male
and one or two smaller ones. We also never saw them in water, but
usually not a great distance from a marsh or stream. They were much
shier than the hartebeest and zebra, and upon seeing our approach would
be the first to run away. And by a curious chance the does seemed to
know that it was the buck only that was in danger. They would often turn
to watch us, while the buck himself would keep on running until he had
put many hundreds of yards between himself and the threatened danger.
Then, and then only, would he turn to watch, and it usually required
careful stalking to get within gunshot of him again.

[Drawing: _Waterbuck_]

The doe is not pretty, be