4i8 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



of feeding in company harmoniousl)- ; indeed, they have a 

 particular predilection for such companionship — it tends to the 

 common safety. Thus, giraffe, zebra, antelopes, and even 

 rhinoceroses, may sometimes be seen in close proximity, and 

 (with, perhaps, the exception of the last) clearly do so from 

 choice, with the object of getting warning from each other of 

 approaching danger ; and — apart from carnivora — wild animals 

 seldom or never resent the mingling of those of other varieties 

 with their herds. But I fancy that, in most cases where a 

 single Grevy's stallion is noticed in company with zebra of the 

 other kind, the latter are all males. Like all such polygamous 

 beasts, the weaker males consort together in separate herds, 

 turned out by the strongest stallions from among the mares. 

 The large male grevyi whose skin I brought to England, 

 and which I had shot among a troop of the small zebra, had 

 his neck all scarred with recent wounds, evidently inflicted by 

 the teeth of a rival, just as horses or donkeys bite each other 

 in fighting. 



Another animal on which it may be worth while to take 

 the opportunity of here remarking is the oryx of these regions. 

 I had always regarded it as the ordinary " beisa," but Messrs. 

 Rowland Ward have pointed out to me that the specimens 

 which I brought home resembled in some respects " callotis," 

 though having no sign of a tassel to the ears. The ears seem 

 somewhat more pointed than those of the Somaliland oryx, 

 the stripe on the cheeks is more defined and descends lower — 

 in some cases meeting the dark patch on the throat,^ — and the 

 animal itself is considerably larger than the typical " beisa," 

 albeit resembling the latter in the shade of its general colouring. 

 Thus this may be an intermediate form, differing slightly 

 from both these accepted species, just as we find a gradation 

 of varieties of the smaller zebras from South to North Africa. 

 It would not surprise me to find that the "topi" of Bassu 



1 There is a certain amount of variation among individuals as to the throat-markings. 

 In one specimen which I have, the dark Hne down the dewlap is absent altogether. 



