300 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



and the base of Mount Elgon it is fairly plentiful, as also in 

 Turkwel. In habits it differs from its East African congener 

 in one respect only, not appearing to be so partial to long grass, 

 but being confined more to rough stony ground and short 

 scrubby bush. This gives the sportsman a chance of seeing it 

 at a distance, and an opportunity of stalking it which the oribi 

 of the coast very rarely affords, unless the grass in which they 

 usually lie has lately been burnt. 



EAST AFRICAN ORIBI 



The East African Oribi (also known to the Swahilis as 'Taya') 

 I have found more plentiful on the mainland near Lamu than 

 anywhere else. Sir Robert Harvey and Mr. Hunter, in October 

 and November 1888, also found it in fair numbers up the Tana 

 river. I have never seen it myself south of the Sabaki, though 

 doubtless it is to be met in suitable places. At Merereni 

 where the country seems admirably suited to its habits, 

 although I was shooting there for some time in 1885 and 1886, 

 I never saw one, though some fifteen miles further south, near 

 Mambrui, I observed its spoor. This confirmed me in my theory 

 that the oribi is very partial to the vicinity of cultivated tracts, 

 and I do not remember having seen one in an uninhabited 

 district. At Taka, a small village on the mainland opposite 

 Patta island, I saw great numbers in 1885. 



In the vicinity of this village there was a great deal of land 

 which at one time had been under cultivation, but was then 

 lying fallow and covered with coarse dry grass, about two feet 

 high. This afforded excellent covert, and, as the colour of these 

 little antelopes closely resembles that of dry grass, it was very 

 difficult to see them. Except in one way, stalking them was 

 quite hopeless. I found that the only plan to get them was 

 to walk them up with one or two beaters on each side of me, 

 and shoot them with a gun loaded with S.S.G. shot. They lie so 

 close that they will let the sportsman get within ten or fifteen 

 yards of them before they will move, but they rarely give him a 

 chance of a shot under forty to fifty yards. When they first get 



