1892.] ANTELOPES OF NORTHERN SOMALILAND. 305 



5. Waller's Gazelle {Lithocranius walleri). 



Gerenouk. 



The Gerenouk is the commonest and most widely distributed of 

 the Somali Antelopes except the little Salt's Antelope, which springs 

 like a hare from every thicket. 



The long neck of the Gerenouk, large giraffe-like eyes, and long 

 mobile muzzle are peculiar, the only other Antelope at all like it 

 being the Dibatag (^Ammodorcas clarkei). 



The Gerenouk is more of a browser of bushes than a grass-feeder, 

 and I have twice shot them in the act of standing on the hind legs, 

 neck extended, and fore feet against the trunk of a tree, reaching 

 down the tender shoots, which could not be got in any other way. 

 Thus not only the appearance, but the habits of a Gerenouk are 

 girafife-like. 



The skull goes far back behind the ears like that of a camel. 



The Gerenouk is found all over the Somali Country in small 

 families, never in large berds, and generally in scattered bush, 

 ravines, and rocky ground. 



I have never seen the Gerenouk in the cedar forests which crown 

 Golis, nor in the treeless plains which occur in the Hand. 



Gerenouk are not necessarily found near water, in fact generally 

 in stony ground with a sprinkling of thorn-jungle. 



The gait of this Antelope is peculiar. When first seen, a buck 

 Gerenouk will generally be standing motionless, head well up, looking 

 at the intruder and trusting to its invisibility. Then the head dives 

 under the bushes, and the animal goes off at a long crouching trot, 

 stopping now and again behind some bush to gaze. 



The trot is awkward-looking and very like the trot of a camel. 

 The Gerenouk seldom gallops, and its pace is never very fast. 



In the whole shape of the head and neck and in the slender lower 

 jaw there is a marked resemblance between the Gerenouk and the 

 newly-discovered Dibatag. The texture of the coat is much alike 

 in both. The horns of young buck Gerenouk are almost exactly 

 the same shape as those of the Dibatag, 



The average length of a Gerenouk's horns is about 13 inches. I 

 have never seen a female with horns. 



Female Gerenouks sometimes lose or desert their young ones, as I 

 have now and then come on quite young Gerenouk living alone in 

 the jungle. 



6. Scemmerring's Gazelle {Gazella sosmmerringi). 



Aoul. 



Five years ago, when staying in quarters at Bulbar, I remember 

 that the Aoul could be seen from the bungalow, grazing out on the 

 plain. The Bulbar Maritime Plain used to be full of them, but they 

 have been so persecuted by sportsmen that they have retired to a 

 great distance, and are seldom shot near Bulbar now. 



The Aoul weighs about the same as the Gerenouk, but has a 

 shorter neck and a clumsy-looking head. It is altogether a coarse 



