WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



form and color, but is rather diminutive, and is only 

 found in the Masai country, where it lives on the open, 

 grass-grown plain. It is not only much smaller, but 

 also much less intelligent than the Grant gazelle. It 

 will allow a hunter to approach within three hundred 

 feet, and is slow to realize its danger. 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 consider- 

 ably. One may often see these pygmy gazelles, which 

 feed exclusivel}^ on grass, pasturing among the tame 

 cattle and goats of the Masai. The Masai abstain from 

 eating the flesh of wild animals and seldom hunt them. 



The Thomson gazelle moves its comparatively long 

 tail to and fro almost constantly. This characteristic 

 movement of the tail I have never seen mentioned in 

 any description of the animal's habits. It enables one 

 to recognize the animal at a great distance. 



Occasionally one observes this gazelle in company 

 with other animals. I have seen a single buck on the 

 plain for days with a greenuk and an old bull gnu. 

 I never noticed the Thomson gazelle in the districts 

 on the left bank of the Pangani River, but elsewhere 

 in the Masai country I found it in great numbers. In 

 English East Africa, near the Nakuro and Elmenteita 

 lakes, I saw thousands of them. These pygmy gazelles 

 help to bring life into the desert, salt, and natron steppe 



308 



