The Abyssinian Oribi 245 



the open. The females are often bigger than the males, and without 

 glasses these bucks are rather difficult to make out, as the ears are kept 

 along the horns, and thus screen them from the hunter. The shot is 

 ordinarily between i oo and 1 50 yards. These oribi are not very timid 

 unless much shot at. 



In the hottest hours of the day they lie down in dry grass about 3 to 4 

 feet high, and more often in the shade of the dwarf mimosa, which stands 

 isolated in the middle of the plains. Sometimes they are lazy and do not 

 care to move except when one is passing quite near. As a rule they jump 

 off about 60 yards away. When a strong wind was blowing I often 

 managed to shoot them with the shot-gun by working slowly against 

 wind in the most likely places. With the .303 rifle they afforded capital 

 sport. The oribi is a small mark, and when jumping in high grass quite 

 difficult enough to give very good practice. Taken all round this is an 

 excellent little game-animal, and I owe the Abyssinian oribi many a 

 pleasant day and many a good dish at dinner, when resting myself and my 

 caravan at Addirabbaba. (Vicomte) Edmond de Poncins. 



In East Africa 



Swahili Name, Taya 



This oribi has so far not been found east of the Mau escarpment. It 

 is plentiful on the rolling grassy downs from an altitude of 7500 feet right 

 away west as far as the shores of Victoria Nyanza in Kavirondo, and is 

 found on the banks of both the Sio and Nzoia Rivers. In Kitosh and 

 Turkwel it is also abundant, but it is certainly more plentiful in Nandi 

 than anywhere else. An oribi — which is probably referable to this species 

 — was found and killed in Uganda and on the western shore of Lake Albert 

 by Colonel Ternan in 1896, but the sole information he could give me 

 on my writing for particulars was that he had lost the skulls ; the skins 



