114 MY SOMALI BOOK 



is their curiosity and desire to identify the skulking 

 creature that permits a nearer approach when the light 

 is bad. And no doubt this is often the case. But 

 on this occasion there was still ample light for me to 

 identify them, and, one would think, vice versa ; for 

 I made no attempt to conceal myself, having once 

 given up the idea of shooting. At the same time I was 

 alone and it is quite possible that, not having winded 

 me, the gerenuk did not associate my appearance with 

 the type of human being from which they were accus- 

 tomed to flee. 



I have, however, noticed similar behaviour in a 

 herd of aoul on the open plain, one of whom I 

 had shot an hour before and in sight of whom I had 

 remamed, with two men, during that time. Our way 

 back to camp laj^ past the herd when there could have 

 been no question as to their not recognising our 

 identity, yet I had no difficulty in the deepening twi- 

 light in walking up to within sixty yards or so of the 

 same herd which an hour before had made me keep 

 my distance at 250. But things look different in the 

 dusk, and I expect the explanation is often partly 

 curiosity and partly an instinctive feeling that it 

 is wise to keep a susjoicious creature well under 

 observation. 



Another day we found a leopard's kill, the remains 

 of a goat, stuck up in a gnda thorn tree fifteen feet 

 from the ground. This is what had happened. The 

 flock was returning leisurely to its zariba in the 

 evening when the leopard, crouching ambushed in 

 the long grass, successfully cut off and strangled the 

 last straggler without attracting the attention of its 



