Identifier: wildgameinzambez00maug (find matches)
Title: Wild game in Zambezia
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Maugham, R. C. F. (Reginald Charles Fulke), 1866-1956
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ldly into the waterand swam out into the stream. Near the centrethe river shallowed, and here he paused, lookingbackward as though to see if his companions werefollowing. I was thus enabled to bring him tobag. It is probable that, in crocodile-infestedstreams like the Urema and the Pungwe, num-bers of these beasts must annually fall victims tothe loathsome saurian. I have seen them in theevening, a little before sunset, standing slakingtheir thirst belly-deep in these rivers, and morethan one crocodile which I have seen opened hasbeen found to be full of the meat and pieces ofskin of water-buck, doubtless caught in the act ofdrinking. My old elephant-hunter Len90 toldme that on one occasion on the banks of theMadingue-dingue River, an affluent of the Pungwe,he came upon a full-grown water-buck bull justas it had been seized by the muzzle. A tremen-dous struggle took place, which lasted someminutes, when, the crocodile being a small, im-mature one, the bull actuallj^ succeeded in draw-
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i»«- #.■ THE WATER-BUCK 125 ing it a little way from the water, whereuponLen90 and his companions dashed to the spot and,knowing full well the crocodile would never letgo, promptly speared both the reptile and hisprisoner. As a rule they are inoffensive creatures. It issaid that the bulls fight a good deal among them-selves ; but then, at the mating season, so do themales of practically all other animals. I haveonly once seen a water-buck show the smallestsign of aggressiveness, and that was a very finebull which I had wounded severely on the banksof the Mungari River in East Luabo. Followingupon his blood spoor through high stipa grass, Icame suddenly upon him at a distance of about10 yards. He had turned and was facing me,and, to my intense surprise, he advanced towardsme, nodding his head violently and breathingheavily—I cannot quite call it snorting—throughhis nostrils. Poor old fellow ! his race was almostrun, or he would no doubt have been more active.As it was, Len90 da

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