316 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



noticeable that most of these were youngish animals of small horns, 

 no doubt the less experienced or less wary members of the herds. 

 Occasionally aged animals are also killed, possibly because they are 

 less able to escape through battle wounds or sickness. The result is 

 therefore that in nature, the greatest mortality is among the youthful 

 and inexperienced or among the aged and outworn. The finest 

 specimens tend thus to be left to perpetuate the herd. It is worth 

 noting that the effect of human game-protective laws is more or less 

 the reverse, for the sportsman is usually content to let the poorer 

 heads go, and to cull out those with the finest horns. In addition to 

 lions, the Ariel evidently have much to fear from the crocodiles that 

 lurk in all the large pools. In the stomach of one shot at Gosar, Dr. 

 Phillips found horns of three Ariel, a doe and two small bucks, appar- 

 ently. If possible the Gazelles will drink at a shallow pool in pre- 

 ference to a large deep one, in which there are likely to be crocodiles. 

 It would be interesting to know how active these Gazelles are by 

 night. \Yhile marching by moonlight along the Dinder, we once 

 came upon two that seemed to be grazing, and again in the dim light 

 preceding dawn I found a few single animals moving about near the 

 stream. 



The type locality of this species is the border of the Red Sea, but it 

 has not yet been shown that the Ariel of the eastern Sudan is different, 

 although two other races are described from more southern areas. 



Cervicapra bohor (Riippell). 

 Bohor Reedbuck. 



Redunca bohor Riippell, Mus. Senckenbergianum, 1845, 3, p. 182. 



The Reedbuck is no longer common on the Blue Nile, and we met 

 with it at but two places. El Mesharat and Bados. It is a most 

 unsuspicious animal and no doubt one that will soon be much reduced 

 in numbers. It has a way of standing broadside to the* intruder, the 

 hind feet one in advance of the other, and with graceful head turned,, 

 it sniffs the air and watches until certain that there is cause for alarm, 

 when it bounds away with tremendous leaps. On the Dinder it was 

 very common above El Kuka, and on the great open ' meres ' and along 

 the grassy jungles by the stream bed they were found feeding through- 

 out the day. They seemed to have been undisturbed here for a long 

 period, and in contrast to their behavior on the Blue Nile, where they 



