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 
Oe eee ere ee 
