s, where he finds good cover and good feeding; and also you
will find him along the low, undulating, grass-covered hills near his
water supply. In the heat of the day they are up in the tall grass,
where they remain until along in the afternoon. They lie close, and, if
discovered, will dart off with neck outstretched in such a way as to
make it difficult to tell which is male and which female.

I have also seen the females use every means for protecting their lords
and masters, standing up before them as they lie secreted in the grass
and seeking to divert the attention of the hunter from the bucks to
themselves. This desire to protect the male is common to many of the
antelope family, and numberless times I have seen a band of does attempt
to screen the male and shield him from harm.

The reedbuck never travels in large numbers, seldom more than two or
three, or at most, five or six, being bunched together.

[Drawing: _They Watched While the Buck Ran Away_]

We had most of our reedbuck experiences while driving swamps for lions.
On these occasions many reedbuck would be driven out of the cover of the
reeds and rushes, and go crashing up the slopes leading away from the
swamp. On one occasion a reedbuck lay so close that it did not stir
until one of the beaters was almost upon it, when it sprang up, nearly
knocking him over, and escaped behind the skirmish line of beaters. At
other times, after the skirmish line apparently had traversed every foot
of a swamp, reedbuck would spring up after the line had passed, thus
illustrating how close they can lie and how effectually they can escape
detection.

The reedbuck has short horns, usually between seven and ten inches in
length, but one of our party secured one set of horns ten and a quarter
inches long--an exceptionally fine head. The reedbuck's distinguishing
characteristic is a sharp whistle, which he sounds shrilly when alarmed.

Another beautiful antelope that we met in small numbers on the Tana
River and on the Guas Ngihsu Plateau was the bushbuck, found in thick
scrub along rivers and also in the swamps and wet places. This animal
belongs to a select little coterie of highly prized and rare antelopes,
all of which have the distinguishing feature of a spiral horn.

The bushbuck is the smallest, and is found over nearly all of East
Africa except upon the open plains and deserts. The females are of a
dark chestnut color, and the males dark, almost black, with white