MAiJMALIA. 269 



Keren, is the attachment which these animals show for 

 particular spots, in which they may be found day after 

 day ; and yet if the animal which occupies a particular 

 station be killed, another will be found in many instances 

 within a few days to have taken possession of the vacant 

 post. I had no opportunity of noticing whether this was 

 the case with the Beni Israel, but it is so common an 

 occurrence amongst wild mammals, not merely with 

 Euminants, but with Carnivora also, that I have no doubt 

 of its accuracy. It is not even peculiar to mammalia. 



Like Gazella dorcas and many larger Antelopes, the 

 Beni Israel has the habit of depositing its dung fre- 

 quently on the same spot, so that its usual haunts may 

 be known by little piles of its droppings. It rarely 

 leaves the shelter of the bushes during the day, and is, I 

 suspect, somewhat nocturnal in its habits, as I have seen 

 it feeding on leaves at the edges of the jungle in the dusk 

 of evening. 



All the specimens of Salt's Antelope seen in the Anseba 

 valley differed from those of the coast and of the pass 

 between Komayli and Senaf6 in their much more rufous 

 colour. There being no distinction, so far as I can see, 

 in size or shape, I am incliued to look upon this as an 

 unimportant variation^-the more so that, as previously 

 noticed when speaking of the Hyraces, many animals, 

 and especially mammals, have a tendency at times or in 

 particular localities to assume a rufous phase; so that the 

 difference between rufous and grey, or rufous and brown, 

 is one of the least characteristic apd certain of specific 

 distinctions. 



