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Show 1892.] ANTELOPES OF NORTHERN SOMALILAND. 305 5. WALLER'S GAZELLE (Lithocranius walleri). Gerenouk. The Gerenouk is the commonest and most widely distributed of the Somali Antelopes except the little Salt's Antelope, which springs like a hare from every thicket. The long neck of the Gerenouk, large giraffe-like eyes, and long mobile muzzle are peculiar, the only other Antelope at all like it being the Dibatag (Ammodorcas clarkei). The Gerenouk is more of a browser of bushes than a grass-feeder, and I have twice shot them in the act of standing on the hind legs, neck extended, and fore feet against the trunk of a tree, reaching down the tender shoots, which could not be got in any other way. Thus not only the appearance, but the habits of a Gerenouk are giraffe-like. The skull goes far back behind the ears like that of a camel. The Gerenouk is found all over the Somali Country in small families, never in large herds, and generally in scattered bush, ravines, and rocky ground. I have never seen the Gerenouk in the cedar forests which crown Golis, nor in the treeless plains which occur in the Haud. Gerenouk are not necessarily found near water, in fact generally in stony ground with a sprinkling of thorn-jungle. The gait of this Antelope is peculiar. When first seen, a buck Gerenouk will generally be standing motionless, head well up, looking at the intruder and trusting to its invisibility. Then the head dives under the bushes, and the animal goes off at a long crouching trot, stopping now and again behind some bush to gaze. The trot is awkward-looking and very like the trot of a camel. The Gerenouk seldom gallops, and its pace is never very fast. In the whole shape of the head and neck and in the slender lower jaw there is a marked resemblance between the Gerenouk and the newly-discovered Dibatag. The texture of the coat is much alike in both. The horns of young buck Gerenouk are almost exactly the same shape as those of the Dibatag. The average length of a Gerenouk's horns is about 13 inches. I have never seen a female with horns. Female Gerenouks sometimes lose or desert their young ones, as I have now and then come on quite young Gerenouk living alone in the jungle. 6. SCEMMERRING'S GAZELLE (Gazella scemmerringi). Aoul. Five years ago, when staying in quarters at Bulhar, I remember that the Aoul could be seen from the bungalow, grazing out on the plain. The Bulhar Maritime Plain used to be full of them, but they have been so persecuted by sportsmen that they have retired to a great distance, and are seldom shot near Bulhar now. The Aoul weighs about the same as the Gerenouk, but has a shorter neck and a clumsy-looking head. It is altogether a coarse |