ANTELOPES 147 



LIVINGSTONE'S SUNI. The range of this graceful little 

 creature extends from northern Zululand along the coast 

 to the Zambesi and Nyasaland. It is not found far inland, 

 and does not exist in the Transvaal. In Portuguese East 

 Africa within a hundred miles of the coast it is, how- 

 ever, very numerous in places, especially in the Inhambane 

 district near Coguno, and on the lower Tembe and Maputa 

 Rivers near Delagoa Bay. 



Livingstone antelopes, as they are generally termed, are 

 found in the densest undergrowth, where it is generally 

 impossible for a man to progress. They are excessively 

 timid and wary, and, instead of bounding away like most 

 small antelopes, they run under the covert, crouching 

 and slinking, more like jackals or cats, than bucks. They 

 are very difficult to see unless a man has had a lot of 

 practice in picking them out amid the dense scrub. 

 The best plan, perhaps, is to enter the forest before day- 

 light, or late in the afternoon, and to sit down within a 

 small shelter of branches, keeping very still and quiet, 

 the spot selected being near to where the tracks betray 

 the usual runs of the animals. Presently a dainty little 

 form may be seen delicately picking its way along, 

 pausing every few steps to look around or to feed, every 

 sense evidently tuned to extreme alertness, the slim legs, 

 not much thicker than a pencil, in constant and springy 

 motion. The slightest suspicious noise and the animal 

 simply vanishes. The eye scarcely sees him go. 



They usually move about singly, or sometimes in pairs. 

 The ordinary cry is a whistling snort, low in tone and not 

 usually repeated. Their food consists partly of leaves and 

 young shoots, and a very distinctive diet is a long carrot- 

 like root of a pale flesh colour, having fibrous protrusions 

 at the thicker end. This root is very common in all bush 

 frequented by Livingstone antelopes, and where it is 



