318 CAPT. H. G. C. SWATITE ON THE [Apr. 3, 



On this occasion the buck was in company with one female, 

 which broke back through the line in spite of the firing, and in 

 rather a curious manner. The only way of crossing the line was to 

 jump over the head of one of my men who was standing erect; 

 and this she did, striking him in the centre of the forehead with 

 her hoofs and knocking him down ; and so she got away. 



The longest pair of horns were a pair which I picked up, 

 measuring about 17 inches in length. Females hornless. 



The young of both sexes are of a distinct reddish brown, 

 getting darker as they grow older, and the natives say the old 

 bucks become nearly black. The hair is generally curiously worn 

 off along the spine. 



There are four or five transverse white stripes and white spots 

 up to about thirty on each side, more numerous in the young 

 animals. The necks are scantily covered with short hair, and in 

 the two young bucks w^e killed were very slender. The flesh is very 

 good eating. I am not aware that the Bushbuck exists anywhere 

 in Somaliland but in the dense forest close to the banks of the 

 Webbe-ShabeyU river. 



Claeke's Gazelle (Ammodorcas clarlei). Somali name " Biha- 

 tag " or " Diptag.^' 



The Dibatag is common enough where it is found at all, but it 

 is very local in its distribution. 



Since Mr. Clarke first discovered it in the distant Marehan 

 country, to the south-east, and in the Dolbahanta country, a few 

 have been met \dth and shot by sportsmen in the eastern parts of 

 the Hand Waterless Plateau. 



I have been singularly unfortunate with this Antelope, never 

 having been in the country inhabited by it till I went to the 

 Nogal Valley three years ago. At that time the " Jilal,'' or dry 

 season, was at its height, and all game scarce and shy. I never 

 got a Dibatag till last June, when on my return journey from 

 Ogadeu across the Waterless Plateau I made a detour of several 

 days to the east on purpose to shoot one. 



I searched for Dibatag at Tur, a jungle due south of Toyo grass- 

 plains, the distance being some eighty miles from Berbera. 



I was lucky in getting one good buck and in picking up two 

 pairs of horns. I saw a good many Dibatag, but all were wild and 

 shy. This is their extreme western limit, and they never by any 

 chance come so far south as the Golis range. Further east, towards 

 Buro, they are more plentiful and less shy. 



Dibatag are very difficult to see, their purplish-grey colour 

 matching with the high "durr" grass in the glades where they 

 are found. Its glossy coat, shining like that of a well-groomed 

 horse, reflects the surrounding colours, making it sometimes 

 almost invisible ; and at the best of times its slender body is hard 

 to make out. 



I have often mistaken female Waller's Gazelles for Dibatag, and 



