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outskirts of the deep forests which border the sea-coast especially. Here on 
my return from the interior, I killed several—and found it even more 
abundant than beyond the boundary. Occurring either singly or in pairs, the 
little dwarf is usually found crouching amid the shelter of bushy localities, 
and the dexterity with which it seeks to foil its pursuers among the intricacies 
of these, has gained for it the Dutch soubriquet in which it rejoices. Aroused 
from its snug form, the ‘ Artful Dodger’ clears with one vigorous and elastic 
bound the nearest bush, and diving low on the other side among the heather 
and brushwood, continues alternately leaping and plunging whilst it flies 
straight as a dart to the nearest thicket—before seeking an asylum in which, 
and not unfrequently also during its retreat, it rises like the hare upon its 
hinder legs, and having thus reconnoitred the foe above the intervening 
vegetation, wheels with an impatient sneeze to the right about, and proceeds 
ducking and bounding as before. 
“The approved Colonial mode of hunting the Duiker-bok is with dogs— 
and whilst thus topping the covert, or darting from one copse to another, the 
little wretch, despite of all its dodging and artifice, is easily slain with a 
hatful of buckshot discharged from a piece of ordnance of such calibre, that 
four fingers might be introduced without much squeezing! Like the rest of 
the Cape venison, the flesh is utterly destitute of fat, a deficiency which the 
thrifty Dutch housewife seeks to remedy with her usual skill by calling in the 
aid of a sheep’s tail. The animal is often to be seen running tame about the 
farm-houses, but it never ceases, even in a domestic state, to take the note of 
alarm from the least sound to which it has been unaccustomed—thunder 
invariably causing it to fly to the nearest shelter in order to hide itself away.” 
As regards the Duiker in the Cape Colony at the present time, we are 
assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington that it is still, next to the Steinbuck, 
the most common and widely distributed of the smaller Antelopes, being 
found sometimes in pairs, but more frequently singly in every suitable 
locality from Table Bay to the Zambezi. As a rule, these observers tell 
us, the Duikers of Cape Colony and Griqualand West are smaller and 
lighter in colour than those found further north. In certain portions of the 
Kalihari Desert they are very common, and attain their largest size, some 
specimens obtained by these gentlemen having measured 28 inches at the 
shoulder. - 
The Common Duiker no doubt extends far up the west coast of Africa. 
