MAMMALIA OF SOMALI LAND- 465 



as one of the antelopes that can exist without water. I procured a 

 young male a few days old from some Somalis who had caught it. I 

 got it alive to Berbera, bur it died there. It was horn in November ; 

 so some, at all events, breed at that season. There are a large 

 number of ticks in the Somali country, and they appear to be 

 partial to koodoo, as the whole of the belly of one I shot was a mass 

 of ticks almost as close together as they could stick. The Somalis 

 prefer koodoo meat to that of any antelope. To my taste all 

 antelope venison is very much alike. The koodoo barks loudly 

 when suddenly disturbed, something like a sambar's bark. I was 

 stalking a small herd from below in some thick bush and they 

 kept constantly barking; they turned out to be females, and did 

 not see me until I was close on them, though their suspicions had 

 been aroused. 



Strepsiceros imberbis 



Is to my mind one of the prettiest antelopes. The buck is of a blue 

 grey with numerous white stripes running down the whole length 

 of the body (the one photographed has fourteen stripes from two 

 to four inches apart). A standing mane of white hair runs along 

 the neck and back to the tail, being shortest along the middle of the 

 back. It has a white patch on the lower part of its neck, and the face 

 is marked, like the koodoo, with white spots on the cheeks, and a 

 white line from the corner of' each eye across the nose. It has no 

 fringe of hair on the throat, and has no suborbital sinus. The horns 

 are spiral, of a less open twist than the koodoo's ; the one photo- 

 graphed measures 21 inches in a straight line from base to tip. 

 The piece broken out of the left horn was caused by one of my 

 shots unfortunately hitting the horn. A pair of horns, in the 

 possession of this Society, measures 24 inches from base to tip in a 

 straight line. The females are hornless ; they and the young males 

 are of a yellowish-brown colour ; the females are striped like the males, 

 but, as far as I could see, the stripes were not as pure a white as those 

 of the male. I was unable to count the stripes on the female, but they 

 appeared to be numerous. This antelope frequents thick bush at the 

 foot of the hills and in the flat desert. I don't think it is found in the 

 hills or in the open. "When disturbed in the thick bush they start off 



