Big Game Shooting 



They are very wary and want a lot more care 

 in the stalking than the beisa oryx in this part of 

 the world, but are, in my opinion, never such 

 a bad target, as they chiefly inhabit green bush 

 country. They are also, of course, to be found in 

 stony country, almost bare, where they are ex- 

 tremely hard to get up to. One cannot take the 

 same liberties with them in the matter of stalking 

 as with the beisa oryx in this country. They 

 have a way of looking apparently aimlessly in 

 one's direction when one first sees them — say four 

 hundred yards away — but that simply means that 

 they have spotted one long before. 



Their horns are of the same shape as those of 

 the beisa oryx, but shorter. They are, like the 

 beisa, possessed of great vitality, and will stand 

 at bay in the same way ; in fact, their habits are 

 practically the same. 



They astonish me a little bit in a way, being 

 of course only a close offshoot from their ally 

 the beisa, because, as well as liking dry, water- 

 less, stony plains, they do not seem to mind wet 

 ground and bush country. I was surprised to 

 meet them, for instance, round Lake Nyeri under 

 Kilimanjaro, a soda lake, and with marshes and 

 big swamps all round ; but there they were in 

 quantities, apparently liking the wet. It was so 

 different from the country on Laikipia and in 

 Somaliland, which two localities resemble one 

 another to an extraordinary degree. 



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