124 Field Columbian Museum — Zoology, Vol. i. 



and we met with them ahaiost everywhere, being very plentiful 

 in parts of Ogaden. On the Hand they seem to restrict them- 

 selves mostly to the plains where they are seen in large herds. 



Ammodorcas clarkei (Thomas). 



Ammodorcas clarkei. Clarke's gazelle. Native name Z>/^d!/a^. 



a.-b. $ ad. South of Toyo Plain. 



c.-d. 9 ad. South of Toyo Plain. 

 e. $ juv. South of Toyo Plain. 

 /. 9 juv. South of Toyo Plain. 



This rare species is only met with in the country south of Toyo 

 Plain, and then eastward to the land of the Dolbahanta. It does 

 not seem to be very numerous even in the localities it frequents, 

 at least that was our experience, and we found it to be the most 

 wary and difficult of approach, of all the animals we hunted. It 

 is not easily seen among the bushes, and it has the habit of con- 

 cealing its body behind some bush, and looking at you over the 

 top, which its long neck readil}^ enables it to do. The neck is so 

 slender and the head so small and pointed, and its peculiar 

 purplish gray glossy coat matches the high grass so well, that 

 the animals are almost invisible, and it takes one quite a little 

 while at times to distinguish them. Then they know at once 

 when you discover them, and are off, and present so small a mark 

 that they are very difficult to hit. At a distance when they stand 

 facing one, the neck does not look wider than a twig, and one 

 has to shoot very straight indeed to secure a specimen of this 

 wary, active species. Although very different in appearance from 

 Waller's Gazelles {Lithocranius walleri) when brought close to each 

 other, yet at a distance it is not always easy to distinguish them 

 if not in motion. But the moment a Dibatag starts to run there 

 is no mistaking the species to which it belongs, its movements 

 being so entirely different. Instead of the low, slouching gait of 

 Waller's Gazelle, the Dibatag bounds away with head and tail 

 well up, the former inclining slightly towards the latter, clearing 

 the bushes at every jump in the manner of the lesser Koodoo, 

 (5. imberbis). I have never seen it carry its head and tail when 

 running so that they nearly touched each other, as some writers 

 have described, but on the contrary the tail is carried straight up 

 in the air, and this alone, from its length, would at once dis- 

 tinguish the Dibatag from the Gerenuk at any distance. It has 

 the long neck and peculiar physiognomy of the Gerenuk, both 

 considerably giraffe-like, and the two species inhabit the same 



