390 HUNTING THE GAZELLE. 



Mr. Roosevelt, resembles the Grant gazelle in form and color, but is much 

 smaller. It lives in the open grass-grown plain, is slow to realize its clanger 

 and will allow a hunter to approach within three hundred feet. The male has 

 long and strong horns; those of the female are poorly developed and ill- 

 shaped. When running away from an enemy these animals carry their heads 

 erect only at the start, but in full flight they lower them considerably. One 

 may often see these pygmy gazelles, which feed exclusively on grass, pastur- 

 ing amone the tame cattle of the Masai tribe. The natives abstain from eat- 

 ing their flesh and seldom hunt them. An almost constant movement of the 

 comparatively long tail to and fro characterizes the Thompson gazelle and 

 enables one to recognize the animal at a great distance. 



The gazelle is occasionally discerned in company with gnus and other ani- 

 mals. In British East Africa near the Nakuru and Elmenteita lakes, thou- 

 sands of them are found. These pygmy gazelles help to bring life into the 

 desert, salt and natron steppe of this vast country. May they long continue 

 to do so, says a distinguished traveler and nature-friend. 



One of the most graceful and beautiful species of this family of animals 

 is the giraffe gazelle. Imagine a diminutive giraffe, exceedingly slender and 

 graceful, of brownish color, provided with horns and capable of standing 

 like a goat on its hind legs. Thus appears the giraffe gazelle, or greenuk. 

 It is widely distributed and has been observed in the remotest regions of the 

 steppe of East Africa. The male is provided with peculiarly-shaped horns; 

 the female has none. 



Near Nairobi and at the foot of Mount Kenia the American hunters often 

 noticed in the bright light of the setting sun, an animal rising on its hind 

 legs to browse on the leaves of the mimosas. At first sight they thought 

 the animal to be a giraffe; for in the clear atmosphere of the steppe it is 

 not easy to judge the distance and size of an object. They soon realized 

 that they were mistaken and that they had before them the greenuk — the 

 giraffe gazelle. They secured several specimens of this rare and little known 

 animal. 



The giraffe gazelle can live far from water and is very hard to hunt. It 

 manages to exist in the desert thorn wilderness and is able to find enough 

 food in the midst of a dry and very scanty vegetation. This gazelle avoids 

 forests and parts of the steppe with luxuriant vegetation. It spends the day 

 in the shade of acacia bushes, and seeks its food early in the morning or late 

 in the evening. 



