322 bulletin: museum of compakative zoology. 



Um Orug we saw in all a fair number, usually in pairs, with other 

 antelope on the great 'meres.' One herd of fifteen was deemed 

 unusual. I came upon a fine lone bull drinking at a pool of the river 

 an hour before noon. It seemed much astonished, but was not 

 thoroughly alarmed until it got my scent, when with a loud explosive 

 "oof" it bounded away. 



GiRAFFA camelopardalis (Linue). 

 Nubian Giraffe. 

 Cervus camelopardalis Linne, S,yst. nat., ed. 10, 1758, 1, p. 66. 



Thanks to governmental protection, Giraffe are still present in small 

 numbers in parts of the Blue Nile Valley and on the upper Dinder. 

 Mr. A. L. Butler of the Game Preservation Department said that they 

 had very noticeably increased of late years. We saw none during 

 our sojourn along the Blue Nile, but discovered old tracks in numbers 

 some miles back from that stream; these were made during the rains 

 when the ground was soft and were still (in January) deeply impressed 

 in the sun-baked soil. The first locality where these tracks were seen 

 was among the gum arable trees about Gebel Okalma, near El Mesha- 

 rat. A few other tracks were found, some fairly recent, in crossing from 

 the Blue Nile to the Dinder between Abu Tiga and Wad Shara Shara. 

 On the upper Dinder we saw several small herds of Giraffe, usually on 

 or near the open 'meres' or boggy areas overgrown with rank grass. 

 A fine herd of ten was seen near Abiad, and later three others. Shortly 

 below Um Orug we saw a herd of twenty-one and later another of 

 twenty-five and after dark came upon a small herd that took headlong 

 flight through the tall grass. Their chief enemy is the lion, and we 

 several times came upon dead Giraftes that had evidently been killed 

 by them. These were usually youngish animals with the epiphyses 

 of the bones still separate. The lions do not eat the tough hide of the 

 Giraffes but leave this carefully separated from the carcase, and even 

 the vultures merely pick it clean. On a ' mere' near Abiad we found a 

 Giraffe that seemed to have died from natural causes — an old and 

 scabby-looking animal with no external wound apparently. The 

 gathering vultures had only just commenced upon it. 



A few young Giraffes are caught alive yearly in this region by the 

 natives, with government permission, to be sent to Cairo or elsewhere 

 for zoological gardens. The natural gait of the Giraffe when walking, 



