ENDERIT RIVER AND LAKE NAKURU 33 



August 3. — While stalking a group of three harte- 

 beests, in creeping across a belt of tall grass I detected, 

 through interlacing stalks, a small antelope close in front. 

 Its head was held ^Dressed flat on the ground, its full dark 

 eyes fixed on mine, not six feet apart. By the short 

 upright horns and dark blaze on the face I judged it to 

 be an oribi ; but being all anxiety to secure the coveted 

 Neumann bull in front, I declined the chance to add 

 what would also have been a new and interesting species 

 to our game-list, and eventually got neither. 



Lions were numerous on the Enderit. We came to 

 regard their opening notes, usually heard at our various 

 camps about 10 p.m., as the signal for turning-in. 

 There is heavy bush alono; the riverside, and we never 

 saw a lion here by day, though we twice fell in with 

 tiger-cats, and once w^ith a brownish lynx that was pro- 

 bably a caracal. A dark-looking beast that I had thought 

 was also 'of the felines Elmi assured me was a "Yea," 

 a name which in the Somali tono-ue sio-nifies a huntino-- 

 dog [Lycaon pictus). It was alone, slowly pottering 

 alono', and presently lav down in lono- oTass where I sot 

 near enouoh, but made a bad miss, runnino- with the 

 carbine. Another animal identified throuoh its Somali 

 name of '' Shook-shook " w^as of the Herpestes genus, a 

 big brown mongoose. When first observed it was lying 

 under a thick laurel-like shrub bv the riverside, devour- 

 ing a francolin ; but a bullet from the Paradox caused 

 it to emit so overpowering an odour that further interest 

 in the specimen was impossible. It w^as as large as an 

 otter, with a conspicuous bushy tuft projecting above and 

 beyond the tail. We frequently saw smaller mongoose, 

 especially in the early mornings, inquisitive little beasties, 

 though never observed to run in a string as they do in 

 Spain. Other pretty creatures are the ground-squirrels, 

 ruddy-brown in colour, that remind one of marmots as 

 they sit upright for a moment, watching, before dis- 

 appearing down their holes. 



Besides all these, other beautiful antelopes abounded 

 in our happy hunting-grounds — amidst profusion it is 



D 



