CHAPTER V 



Tuyo again — Secretary birds — Shooting aotd on the Plain : a grand gallop — 

 Erratic shooting : the explanation — -Two good heads — The Kliansa 

 bush : a leopard's " kill " — Bag a small leopard — Leopard and hyaenas 

 — A long day : the elusive lesser kudu — The Jerato Pass : alaht'it : an 

 unintentional crime — Mandera again : meet H. — Shoot a lesser kudu at 

 last — A good gerenuk — Pelzeln's gazelle — Back in Berbera — The end of 

 the trip. 



Crossing the Tuyo Plain once more I again saw the 

 unknown So7najesti. He was standing looking at mc 

 not more than seventy or eighty yards away and I 

 might have shot him easily enough, but thought he 

 was a jackal until I put the glasses on him. Then I 

 was struck by the resemblance of the head to that 

 of a striped hysena and the black markings on a pale 

 tawny coat like no jackal that exists. As soon as I 

 exchanged binocular for rifle of course he bolted, and 

 reached his earth untouched by my snap-shot. I 

 came to the conclusion that he might be an aard-wolf, 

 an animal of whose existence so far north as Somali- 

 land I had not been aware. 



New to me also were a pair of birds I saw just 

 afterwards which looked like giant silver pheasants 

 feeding. When one stood upright, however, it altered 

 his appearance considerably. He was white or pale 

 grey above and black below, with a crest on his head 

 and apparently an aquiline beak. When flying he 

 looked not unlike a black and white stork without the 

 long bill. I put them down as Secretary Birds. 



