GERENUK AND DIK-DIK 



their sharp, spear-hke horns when they are fighting 

 one another. It is interestinor to note that their 

 SomaU name is "biid" (plural, "biida"), and not, as 

 it is given in most books, "beid," or "beida," 



Gerenuk [Lithocranms walleri) are, with the dik- 

 dik, the most common animals in Jubaland. Wherever 

 strictly desert conditions prevail, gerenuk are found 

 in twos and threes, feedinfj like oroats on the leaves 

 or young shoots of the acacia scrub, or wait-a-bit 

 thorn. I have seen them in places at least eighty miles 

 from water, and they are apparently unaffected by 

 the sun, as they may be observed feeding and moving 

 about at all times of the day regardless of the heat. 

 They often associate with oryx and sometimes with 

 topi. On the whole I did not find them shy, and 

 it was generally easy to bag one, when meat was 

 required. 



As I mentioned above, dik-dik [Madoqtca kirkii) 

 are extremely numerous throughout Jubaland, and 

 this is especially the case in the sandhills near the 

 coast. I was able to bring back six specimens of 

 these little animals, and compared them carefully 

 with the type-specimens at the British Museum, but 

 though they all exhibited slight differences in size of 

 skull, there was no marked deviation from the type 

 of Kirk's dik-dik, even in those I shot in the interior 

 of Jubaland. From a sporting point of view they 

 are somewhat uninteresting, but the study of their 

 habits and the sight of their dainty forms, and ex- 

 quisite grace of movement, was a never-failing source 

 of pleasure to me. In all the larger animals the 

 effects of scanty grazing and the severe physical con- 

 ditions of the country they inhabit are shown in their 

 small bodily size and horn measurement, and this is 



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