DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 557 



to split up into little groups, which may not come together 

 again. Normally the oribi prefers to go singly or in couples. 

 On the short-grass plains it must be stalked like a gazelle; 

 elsewhere it must be shot like a duiker or steinbok. The 

 oribi is a grass-eater. We generally found it near water, 

 but in the Lado we came across individuals in the dry noon- 

 day haunts of the giant eland, so far from water that we 

 doubted whether they drank, although the vegetation was 

 so parched that it was hard to believe that they could get 

 along without drinking. Unlike the duiker and steinbok, 

 the oribi is one of the noisy, whistling antelope; its squealing 

 whistle of alarm or curiosity is loud and shrill, entirely dis- 

 tinct from the whistling of either the klipspringer or the 

 reedbuck. We have heard an oribi and a reedbuck each 

 whistle, one after the other, as they sprang from the same 

 patch of brush and made off with the usual pig-like rush 

 under cover of grass so tall that neither could be seen. 

 When in the open they run very fast, with great bounds; 

 after going a couple of hundred yards they turn and face 

 the hunter with their large ears thrown forward. The oribi 

 offers a difficult mark to the rifleman. Its flesh is delicious. 

 We found the oribi moving and feeding at all hours of 

 the day and night. Once in the Lado we came on a couple 

 of individuals unconcernedly feeding under the blazing sun 

 at high noon, on a patch of short, green grass, while a fire 

 was rolling through the long, dry grass close on either side 

 of them. 



Key to the Races of montana 



Tail like the back in color, or with only a few black hairs at the tip 

 Coat bright ochraceous-tawny, heavy 



Horns weakly ringed, smooth for most of their length 



montana 



