288 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xin 



able sarroundings because their own coloration was 

 suitable to that district. There are no means of deciding 

 whether a species became differentiated in the district 

 in which we find it, or has wandered to that part from 

 its original home. 



The pretty antelope named after Joseph Thomson, 

 who discoverd it during his journey through Masailand 

 to the Victoria Nyanza (1883), is abundant in the 

 country between Kilimanjaro and Lake Baringo ; its 

 northern limit lies a few miles above Lake Nakuru. 

 Both sexes possess horns ; they are larger in the buck 

 than in the doe (p. 16). Usually these gazelles run 

 about in herds of ten does and one buck, but larger com- 

 panies are seen, sometimes consisting of fifty animals. 

 In districts where they have not been worried by sports- 

 men they are easy to approach. When much shot 

 at they are wary and cautious and as they run, or 

 intermingle with herds of other animals, give the 

 alarm. Everyone who has made a careful stalk towards 

 game has suddenly been annoyed by a " Tommy " 

 jumping along wagging his tail and warning all the 

 animals in the neighbourhood. The almost constant 

 agitation of the tail is peculiar to this antelope. 

 Thomson's gazelles have never been brought alive to 

 the Zoological Gardens, but they thrive in confinement 

 in British East Africa. 



When Captain Grant accompanied Speke on his 

 memorable journey to the Victoria Nyanza in 1863, 

 he discovered a beautiful gazelle which has been named 

 after him. It is common on the grasslands of the East 

 Africa Protectorate and often runs with Thomson's 

 gazelle. Both sexes of Grant's gazelle are horned ; the 

 horns of the buck are large, handsome, and more or 

 less lyriform. They are thirty inches in length. Some 

 examples of this antelope weigh 150 pounds. Among 

 a herd of zebra, oryx, hartebeest, or giraffe Grant's 

 gazelle is a useful outpost and gives timely warning 

 of the sportsmen's approach. 



