OSTRICHES AND GIRAFFES
BY F. J. JACKSON
The two species of game most difficult to approach are the giraffe and
the ostrich. Their watchfulness and powers of scent equal those of
other game, and if anything their sight is even more extraordinary.
Besides these wonderfully developed senses, they possess a tremendous
advantage over other game in their great height, being able to easily
see over covert amply sufficient to conceal the approach of the stalker
from the view of other animals.
Giraffes (_Giraffa camelopardalis_) were a few years ago fairly
numerous in places suited to their habits, but I am told that a
good many of them have fallen victims to the same disease which has
destroyed the buffaloes. Still there are plenty left. Giraffes are very
partial to the table-topped mimosas, on which they principally feed,
and should be sought for in places where these trees abound. As a rule,
they are found in small herds of six or eight, sometimes up to twenty
or more, but solitary individuals are occasionally met with.
Giraffes kept in confinement give very little idea of the adult beast
in a wild state. The wild one is not only much taller, but very much
more bulky, and would weigh at least half as much again as any beast
that was until lately to be seen in the Zoological Gardens. They are
also very much darker in colour. The meat of the giraffe is not, as
a rule, much appreciated by the Zanzibari porters, and some of them
will not touch it. This is not from any religious or superstitious
scruples, but on account of its causing a rash, a kind of herpes, of
a most irritating nature to break out upon them. My head gun-bearer,
Ramazan, and some of the porters once suffered for a fortnight after
eating the meat of the first giraffe I shot, when there had been no
other meat in camp for three or four days previously. He assured me
that it is a well-known fact that it affects some men and not others.
The meat of the lesser kudu also affects certain constitutions only,
but in a different way, as it acts as a salivant, and causes great pain
in the mouth and gums. Several times my tent-boy, Sadala, was unable
to eat anything but a little rice for some days after eating the meat
of this beast. I mention these facts solely to induce sportsmen to
avoid shooting these beautiful beasts (except as trophies) when meat is
required for the men and other game is to be obtained. The marrow-bones
of a giraffe, which are considered by some epicure sportsmen to be the
greatest delicacy in Africa, not excepting elephant’s heart, I have
always found very inferior to those of the eland, or even the buffalo.
Amongst the places where I have seen the giraffe in fair numbers are
the caravan routes between Vanga and Teita, especially at Adda and
Kisagao, and between Ndara in Teita, and Nzoi in Ukambani, particularly
near Ndi, Mto Ndai, and Mto Chumvi. In 1887 the open bush and sparsely
mimosa-wooded country just outside Taveta forest, on the road to
Langora, was a sure find for these stately beasts.
Unless giraffes are found in ground fairly well wooded with mimosa and
other trees, with also a fair undergrowth of bush, there is little
chance of approaching to within range of them; but if found in such
covert, and not too much scattered, the stalker, by dodging from bush
to bush and by being careful to keep the thickly foliaged crown of a
mimosa or other tree between the beast and himself, ought with ordinary
care to have little difficulty in getting a shot. If an Express rifle
is used on these beasts, it must only be with solid bullets, as their
hide is very thick and tough. Personally I prefer an 8-bore.
[Illustration: A FAMILY GROUP]
I once watched a small herd of giraffes from the top of an ‘earth
boil,’ and from my elevated position got a splendid view of them. They
were standing about 500 yards off, in fairly open bush of uniform dark
green, which in the distance appeared to be pretty thick, and formed a
good background to the numerous mimosa-trees with their table-tops of a
much brighter green, on which the giraffes were feeding. The strongly
marked colouring of these gigantic and stately creatures towering above
the bush made them stand out in clear contrast to their surroundings,
as they slowly moved from tree to tree, gracefully twisting and turning
their long necks to enable them to nibble the tender shoots of the
mimosas in their usual delicate manner, giving me the impression that
they might indeed be ‘monarchs of all they surveyed.’
The ostrich (_Struthio molybdophanes_) of East and Central Africa is
distinguished from the South African bird by its greater size, and by
the cock bird having a blue neck. The feathers at any time are inferior
and of little or no market value. The only two birds that I have ever
seen with feathers that were at all good were killed by Mr. H. C. V.
Hunter at Kilimanjaro in 1887, when he had the good fortune to bag them
shortly after they had moulted, and before they had rubbed and damaged
their wing-feathers when dusting themselves. The ostrich is plentiful
in many parts of the country, and goes about in small troops, generally
three or four together, though I have twice seen a troop of thirteen,
once in the Arusha-wa-Chini country, and once at Machako’s. An adult
cock ostrich, when standing upright, would measure quite 10 ft. to the
crown of his head, the hen being rather smaller. How far this bird
ranges to the south I am unable to say, but to the north I have seen
it near Lake Baringo. The Swahili and Arab traders, who now go up
to Lake Rudolph, occasionally bring down small bunches of feathers,
which, however, are probably of another species. Throughout the Masai
country and east of it to the coast ostriches are to be found in most
of the plains and open bush country, where they find plenty of green
herbage to feed on, whether grass or the leaves of various bushes. At
Merereni, on the coast, in 1886, where I bagged three, two cocks and
a hen, the hen bird was feeding on the young shoots of a small-leaved
mangrove bush by the side of a creek. Each of these birds when cut open
was found to have about 3 lbs. weight of pebbles inside its gizzard.
Ostriches are even more difficult to stalk than giraffes, as they
are mostly found out in the open, and unless the sportsman can get a
bush sufficiently tall to prevent their seeing him over it, or can
take advantage of the dry bed of a watercourse, should there be one
near, it is almost hopeless to try to stalk them. They are, however,
not difficult to drive, and I have twice succeeded in circumventing
them in this way, once with Sir Robert Harvey, and another time when
alone. Once I tried to approach a troop of five by using my imitation
ostrich, the Bushman’s stratagem (with which I was so successful with
_G. Grantii_), but failed so hopelessly--the birds at once detecting
the fraud and never allowing me to get within 500 yards of them--that
I never tried it again. The best day I ever had with these birds was
when I came across three, which I saw from a long way off, feeding
amongst some small scattered bushes on a slope in undulating ground. By
taking advantage of the low ground on the other side of the undulation,
I succeeded, after a long and painful crawl, in getting up to a bush
near the top. Here I could see the long neck and head of one of them
over the brow, and was pleased to notice that they had altered their
position and were feeding in my direction. Sitting quite still, I
waited until they were within seventy yards of me, and got two of them
with a right and left shot. The other one bolted down the slope of the
hill away from me and disappeared for a few seconds, but apparently
lost its head; for on standing up I saw it coming back; as it had not
seen me, I stooped down behind the bush, and when it raced past about
seventy or eighty yards off, with head held back and wings extended, I
knocked it over.
[Illustration: 1 C. Harveyi. 2 G. Petersi. 3 N. montanus. 4 C. bohor.]