ITS DISTRIBUTION 



surprised at first when told by the Somali that I should 

 find them to the west of the Lorian Swamp, but I 

 discovered later that they apply the word "arrola" 

 to the impalla {^yEpyceros melampus) as well, and this 

 animal is, of course, found all along the Uaso Nyiro. 



If the reader will glance at the map, and note the 

 range I have given to Hunter's hartebeeste, he will 

 see what a very local animal it is ; and if it is 

 remembered that the whole of that country is practi- 

 cally unadministered, and inhabited by the most 

 warlike and truculent of the Ogaden Somali, it will 

 not seem so strange that only a very few specimens 

 have ever found their way to this country. 



It is of course an infallible sign of ignorance to 

 attempt to dogmatise on the habits of animals, with 

 which one has had but a month's acquaintance. I saw 

 ninety-seven arrola in all, and made careful notes at the 

 time of what I observed, both of their movements 

 and of the country they inhabit ; and I shall there- 

 fore confine myself in the following description of 

 their surroundings and their habits, to the facts I 

 noted down on the spot in my field-book, and to a 

 few deductions that may legitimately be drawn from 

 them. 



I saw no arrola outside the district of Joreh, 

 though the natives told me that occasionally there 

 were some near Goniah-iddu, but when I passed 

 through that district later I did not see any spoor. 

 They inhabit a country of small open plains, covered 

 with thin scattered bush alternating with belts of 

 dense acacia scrub. In the early morning and towards 

 sunset they may be seen in herds of from twenty to 

 thirty animals, feeding on the coarse grass that is 

 generally found on the plains ; but during the heat of 



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