980 DR. R. E. DRAKE-BROCKMAX ON 



This Dik-dik is known to the Somalis by the name " Gol ass," 

 owing to its bright red flanks. It ranges from near Djibouti in 

 the north and the Ennia Galla country in the west throughout 

 the Somali country to the east coast and as far south as probably 

 the 3rd parallel. A large number of the skins of this Dik-dik 

 are brought down to the Benadir ports for sale, from Central and 

 East Central Somaliland. 



I might here add that I consider that little importance can be 

 attached to the colour of the crest, as it is very variable. In 

 some it is of a bright fulvous, in otiiers of a dull reddish brown, 

 while in not a few the hairs are tipped with black. The white 

 eye-patch also varies in distinctness with age. 



Madoqua swaynei Thos. (PL LVI. fig. 2.) 



This is the smallest of the Somali Dik-diks, and is, according to 

 Swayne, known to the Ogaden Somalis by the name " Guyu," but 

 this name I have never heard it called myself. The word " Guyu " 

 in Somali means any living animal. 



There is very little known about the exact habitat of this little 

 Dik-dik, owing to the fact that sportsmen have usually confounded 

 it with the ubiquitous M. phillipsi. The type specimen was 

 bought by Swayne from a native in the town of Berbera. 



I have been on the look-out for it for some years, but have 

 failed to come across it either alive or dead in British Somaliland. 

 I first met it during my journey with the Anglo-Abyssinian 

 Boundary Commission in 1908, south of Ginir on the river Web, 

 one of the affluents of the Juba, where it was plentiful practically 

 all along the left bank of this river up to its junction with the 

 Ganale. This I took to be its westerly limit. 



One of my collectors has lately brought me two specimens of a 

 Dik-dik from Eastern Somaliland, as far south as Obbia on the 

 coast ; he obtained these from a place called Gharabwein about 

 12 miles inland from Obbia, where they were plentiful, and 

 were the only Dik-diks seen, although at Eil Hur, not more than 

 10 miles distant, 31. phillipsi abounded and this Dik-dik 

 resembling 31. swaynei was absent. 



From the above I conclude that 31. swaynei and the above- 

 mentioned species which I am about to describe stretch right 

 across Central Somaliland from east to west, where they are 

 locally distributed, and surrounded by the commoner 31. phillipsi. 

 Neither 31. sioaynei nor the allied form go as far south as 

 Mogadishu, as my collector was unable to procure a specimen 

 of either species there or on the Webi Shebeleh, nor was he 

 able to purchase any of their skins in the market, although the 

 Somalis bring Dik-dik skins in thousands for sale in the coast 

 towns in Italian Somaliland. The only two species the skins of 

 which he was able to obtain were 31. phillipsi and R. gueniheri. 



The Obbia specimens differ from those I obtained on the Web 

 in Western Somaliland in that there is no yellow sufiusion of the 



