The Natal Duikei 



219 



obtained at them (with the chance also of a bushbuck) by walking down 

 the sheltered side of a spur, and watching the sunlit spots on the opposite 

 side of the kloof; their bright red fur renders them very conspicuous in 

 sunlight, though almost invisible in shade. When driving a bush, they 

 will keep dogs running round and round for hours on the little tracks, 

 before breaking cover, but as they are clumsy in open ground they are 

 easily bagged when they do come out. I saw one of these antelope dodge 

 a large eagle one day for half an hour. The latter swooped repeatedly, but 

 each time the " msumbi " avoided the stroke by dodging into the low 

 scrub. The eagle then tried to force it into more open ground, and to cut 

 it off from the kloof, and twice knocked it over with a powerful wing- 

 stroke, but the "msumbi" succeeded at last in gaining the deep kloof. They 

 are fairly tenacious of life, but as they give easy chances, a .320 rook-rifle 

 is an excellent weapon to shoot them with, and it does not spoil the meat. 

 Large numbers of these little antelope are killed by leopards. 



F. Vaughan Kirby. 



Dr. Percy Rendall adds to Mr. Kirby's remarks on this duiker the 

 following particulars : — 



The dimensions of three freshly killed adults were — 



Height at shoulder .... 



17! 



18 





i6| 



Circumference of barrel behind shoulder 



i8i 



1 8J 





i7i 



Point of shoulder to nose 



1 a* 



1 + 





I2f 



Girth of neck 



10 



9l 





91 



Nose to tail 



36} 



38 





39i 



Weight 



26 lbs. 



27* 



lbs. 



25A lbs. 



The habits of the lesser red-buck, as the Colonists call it, are very 

 skulking, and it is never found away from the dense bush and undergrowth 

 which fringes the sides of the kloofs or dongas, as the ravines are called which 

 they frequent. Their droppings are found, like rabbits', in circumscribed 



