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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I. THE BAIRA ANTELOPE OF SOMALI LAND. 

 {With a Plate.) 



The Somali Coast Protectorate has during the last decade deservedly 

 become a very favourite hunting ground for sportsmen from India and 

 elsewhere, and, as not a few have put their experiences on record, there is now 

 a good deal of literature dealing directly or incidentally with the mammalia 

 of the country, so that from a non-scientific point of view little remains to be 

 said about the several species of big game which usually find a place in the 

 bag of a sportsman hunting on this side of the Webbe Shebeyli. Interesting 

 papers on the subject have appeared in our Journal from Messrs. Inverarity 

 and Dodgson, accompanied in the former case by a set of excellent photographs, 

 delineating six of the antelope to be met with — pictures which, I doubt not, 

 have since imbued many a reader of the Journal, as they did me at the time, 

 with the determination to see in their own haunts the beautiful creatures of 

 which they are the counterfeit presentments. 



As however little or nothing was known of the Baira Antelope at the time 

 their papers appeared, and as neither sportsman met with it nor makes any 

 reference to it, a few notes on the subject may prove of interest. 



It will be well in the first place to come to a clear understanding as to the 

 proper pronunciation of the word. Captain Swayne spells it " Baira." 

 Messrs. Sclater, Thomas, and others " Beira," I have followed the former. 

 As to which is the more correct rendering, I am not prepared to argue ; the 

 main thing is to know what sound the spelling is meant to convey. The 

 word is the Somali name for the animal, and the first syllable of it is pro- 

 nounced the same as the English word " buy " (purchase). It is a pity that we 

 have not yet arrived at any Volapuk system for the spelling of new names ; 

 one would be saved so many atrocities in the way of pronunciation if the 

 spelling conveyed any reliable idea of the sound required. I remember well 

 how much I pained the local celebrities at Aden and on the Somali Coast, when 

 on first introduction to the neighbourhood and for some time afterwards I 

 persisted in calling the small seaport on the Somali Coast, " Zyla," instead of 

 " Zela," a mispronunciation which, having never before heard the word 

 spoken, I had acquired from seeing the name spelt " Zaila" in maps and in 

 books. 



That the Baira is decidedly rare and very locally distributed, there can be 

 no question, and an additional reason for its never having come in the way of 

 sportsmen is the extremely inhospitable nature of the particular class of 

 country which forms its habitat — country which is, as a rule, shunned both by 

 the traveller and the nomad Somali, for reasons which I shall presently 

 explain 



