DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 555 

 The Oribi 



Ourebia 



Ourebia Laurillard, 1841, Diet. Univ. d'H. N., I, p. 622; type 0. scoparia 

 of South Africa. 



There is nothing distinctive about the uniform tawny- 

 yellow color of the oribi, but it may be known at a glance 

 from the reedbuck, which it resembles in color, by its small 

 body size, long, slender legs, and rudimentary tail. Other 

 important characters are the long tufts or brushes at the 

 knees, the bare space on the head immediately below the 

 ear, the rounded opening of the anteorbital gland in front 

 of the eye, and the short, parallel horns of the male, which 

 are ringed at the base. At the groin are a pair of deep 

 inguinal sacks, marked by a growth of long, peculiar, pithy 

 hair. The skull is distinguishable by the large size of the 

 anteorbital fossa, which equals the orbit in area, and by the 

 lack of the sinus between the nasal and the lachrymal bones. 

 The snout is more elongate than in the steinbok or pygmy 

 antelope. The females exceed the males slightly in size, 

 their skulls averaging one-fourth of an inch greater. The 

 sexes are alike in color with the exception of the crown, 

 which is marked between the ears in the female by a large 

 dark-brown blotch and is much darker than that of the male. 

 The coloration of the young does not differ from that of 

 the adult female in pattern, tone, or extent of the dark crown 

 patch. The oribi, though extremely local, has a wide distri- 

 bution. It ranges from the Cape northward along the East 

 Coast drainage to the highlands of Abyssinia, and thence 

 west along the borders of the Sahara to the West Coast in 

 Senegal, but is absent from the Congo forest area. Owing 

 to the local character of its distribution, the oribi breaks up 

 into numerous geographical races showing slight color char- 

 acters, and on this account it is quite difficult to distinguish 

 the races from the species. It is quite probable that not 

 more than two or three distinct species are recognizable. 



This pretty and graceful little antelope was first met 

 with by us on the Uasin Gishu Plateau, a fairly high, rather 



