342 



SAVAGE SUDAN 



I mention these details because, shortly after returning 

 home, at a meeting of the Zoological Society (May igth, 

 1914) there were exhibited examples of hornless male 

 oribi shot on this same Dinder River in 1903. It was 

 also stated that Sir S. Baker and von Heuglin had both 

 been aware of the existence of this phenomenon. I have, 

 however, been unable to find the reference Baker, in fact, 

 never mentions the oribi at all. Still, in the light of the 

 above note, it is conceivably possible that some of the 

 many hornless oribi seen on the Dinder may have been 



males ; without shooting 

 them, it would be impos- 

 sible to decide the point. 



On the Dinder the local 

 name for oribi was digdig, 

 which at first was mislead- 

 ing. One evening after 

 sundown I saw a pair of 

 small blue-grey antelopes 

 playing together, and was 

 only prevented from secur- 

 ing them by the failing 

 light. At the time, I im- 

 agined these were true 



dikdiks ; possibly, however, they may have been the little 

 blue duiker of Sudan (Cepkalopkus abyssinicus\ since 

 Mr Butler tells me he has never met with dikdiks on the 

 Dinder. Captain Lynes also put up another tiny antelope, 

 a mahogany-coloured beast, from a bush at his very feet ; 

 but was only armed with a collecting-gun. 



GAZELLE ON ZERAF RIVER. 



(iv.) GAZELLES IN THE SUDAN 



Of the seven species of gazelle found in the Sudan, 

 four frequent exclusively the desert-regions of the north 

 and east ; while the other three (two of them closely 

 allied) favour forest and bush farther south. 



