38 MY SOMALI BOOK 



to the front, tail down and head low, is far from 

 elegant, and very unlike the graceful bounds of the 

 dhero. 



One of the commonest antelopes of Somaliland, 

 though never found in large herds, it is generally looked 

 upon as one of the most difficult to shoot. The buck's 

 horns are not long and are difficult to make out as he 

 stands staring at you with head thrown back, usually 

 against a bad background of trees or bush, and by 

 the time you have made u^^ your mind that his head 

 is worth having he has moved on. If he stands again, 

 it is behind a bush, or else there is much the same 

 difficulty of picking him out from the family which 

 almost always accompanies him. If you can decide 

 as to the quality of the buck's head when you first 

 sight him well and good ; but many's the gerenuh 

 that I have followed and never fired at. On the other 

 hand, geremih, when alarmed, have a habit of trotting 

 in a circle instead of going right away, and, as antelopes 

 go, are, I think, decidedly stupid, so that sometimes 

 approaching them is the simplest thing possible. 



The horns of the buck are very massive for the size 

 of the animal, and in proportion to their length ; and 

 very distinctive in form, sloping back from the skull, 

 on which they are set far forward, and at the tip 

 curving forward into a pronounced hook, deeply 

 corrugated at the base. The coat is a handsome one, 

 the general colour being a sort of dark chestnut, with 

 a slightly grizzled effect at close quarters, due apparently 

 to the hairs being light in colour on their under side. 



Presently we reached the Tuyo Plain, about 25 miles 



