BEISA 



287 



and most arid places at long distances from water. When found in 

 open bush and disturbed, they take to the open for safety, but when 

 wounded, like most other game, they make for the bush. They are 

 grass-feeders and thrive well, being fat and sleek during the hottest 

 and dryest time of the year, when there is not a vestige of anything 

 green. In districts most frequented by oryx, both at Kilimanjaro and 

 near Lake Baringo (where it is the true beisa), there grows a curious 

 low, creeping plant which throws out in all directions tendrils about 



Fig. 60. — Beisa coming to drink at water-holes during drought, from a photograph by 



Lord Delamere. 



18 inches long, covered with a hard, sharp, spiky berry, having a 

 spike sticking upwards. An oryx is at all times difficult to stalk, 

 but these spiky berries render the stalk much more tedious, not to 

 say painful, when on hands and knees, or crawling on one's stomach, 

 as even leather, which will turn most thorns, affords little protection. 



" One of the most striking things in a bull oryx is the extraordinary 

 thickness of the skin of the neck and front of the shoulders, no doubt 

 a provision of nature to protect them during the fights that take place 

 during the rutting-season. The neck-skin of a cow is, however, no 

 thicker than that of a hartebeest. 



