THE MINOR ANTELOPES AND GAZELLES 341 



on top of oribi, so closely do they then lie in the deep 

 grass usually a doe with her fawn. 



On the Dinder River, near Kamisa, oribi were almost 

 the only kind of larger game, and I put in an occasional 

 morning's still-hunting in the woods on either bank of that 

 river. Sometimes one might spy the game afar, grazing 

 in an open glade ; another would steal gently away, low 

 and inconspicuous, just beyond range. But it would not 

 travel far, and with care a silent approach was often 

 possible. How difficult that is in the tangle of an 



" CAUGHT NAPPING " ORIBI. 



African forest goes without saying. Even your barefoot 

 guide may crack some recreant twig or rustle a sun-dried 

 leaf. Pray that such mishap befall not at a crucial 

 moment ; also that your way be not intercepted by fallen 

 leaves they are fatal. 



When undisturbed, or thinking itself unseen, the oribi 

 crouches low, half-hidden by tufted grasses, or lost amid 

 the chequered shade of overhung boughs undistinguish- 

 able as a wood-sprite from his environment. 



All oribi killed on the Dinder happened to be females, 

 and being anxious to secure a local male, I spent several 

 days in fruitless seafch. Probably over a score of oribi 

 were sighted, sometimes two and even three together ; 

 but all were hornless. 



