TIANG 



83 



the game-country of Sudan, and though in the main 

 a denizen of the open prairie, yet in the south we con- 

 stantly found these antelopes in forests denser than 

 I ever saw hartebeests frequent elsewhere. Tiang drink 

 twice a day ; in the mornings very early, before it is 

 light enough to see, for dawn discovers them slowly 

 grazing away from the riverside. 1 Owing to this 

 dependence upon water, tiang, in a dry season, are never 

 found far inland, usually within a few miles provided 

 pasturage is plentiful. In places where their feeding- 

 grounds lie further back, they are restless and unsettled 



* Vr 



" ^ AVV^V.M^' 



TIANG AT MIDDAY Zeraf River, February igth, 1913. 



while passing through the intermediate belt, snatching 

 a mouthful here and there and keeping a keen look-out. 

 In such places it is time wasted to trouble them ; better 

 seek them out at their permanent pasturages. 



After their pre-dawn drink and a morning's feed, 

 tiang are most playful animals. I have watched a herd 

 of sixty or eighty performing a regular series of evolu- 

 tions, galloping wildly around in circles opposing, con- 

 centric, and elliptic bucking and leap-frogging over 

 one another's backs, as though in terror. At first I 



1 Whereas, as just described, tiang habitually drink at least twice every 

 day, yet by one of those inexplicable paradoxes that confront one in 

 Nature, its nearest relative the korrigum is exclusively confined (as regards 

 the Sudan) to the arid Deserts of Western Kordofan, where no water exists, 

 and where thirst can only be allayed by digging up the bitter melon. 



