t= 
190 
a strong leaper, the white bushy tail flashing over the aloe-clumps as it takes them 
in great bounds. They are very cunning, and will stand quite still on the farther 
side of a thicket listening to the advancing trackers, then a slight rustle is heard as 
they gallop away. The best way to get a specimen is to follow the fresh tracks of 
a buck, the sportsman advancing in a direction parallel with that of the tracker, but 
some fifty yards to one flank and in advance; a snap-shot may then be got as the 
Koodoo bounds out of the farther side of a thicket, but you may be months in the 
country before getting a really good buck. They go in herds of about the same number 
as do the Greater Koodoos. Old bucks are nearly black and the horns become smooth 
by rubbing against trees; and scars of all sorts remain on the neck, being the result of 
wild rushes through the jungle and fights with other bucks. The average length of a 
good buck’s horns is about 25 inches from base to tip. The longest I have shot or 
seen was between 27 and 28 inches in length in a straight line. The horns are very 
sharp, but I have never seen a Lesser Koodoo attempt to charge.” 
Lt.-Col. H. O. Olivier, R.E., who has lately made a short hunting-tour in 
Somaliland, sends us the following field-notes on the Lesser Kudu:— 
“The Lesser Koodoo is, I consider, a more difficult animal to circumvent than the 
Larger Koodoo. They are met with in thick scrubby jungle and are extremely wary. I 
found that when once they had seen us it was almost hopeless to get a shot, as they 
have a habit of standing in deep shade looking back over a fork of a tree or through the 
top of a bush along their back track, and one cannot evade their eyesight, however 
quietly one moves. Moreover, they constantly go off down-wind. 
“They seem to be partial to moving in a restricted range, for I found that when 
following their tracks they always worked round in a circle. They are also very partial 
to disused zarebas, which they visit for the sake of the grass found there, and the finest 
animal I ever saw was observed sunuing itself in the middle of such a zareba about 
9 o’clock in the morning. Naturally I had not my rifle, and my shikari, who had it, 
did not see the Koodoo, and though I followed it for some six hours I never got a chance 
at it; but it was a real beauty. : 
‘“‘T was fortunate in twice getting shots at animals before they saw me by coming 
unexpectedly on them and not tracking them, which latter operation is a weariness 
to the flesh and exasperating to the temper. I found the Lesser Koodoo at the foot of 
the Golis Range, and in considerable numbers on the Farfan and Dachato Rivers; also 
to the west of Hargeisa, and indeed in the Hargeisa jungle itself. They seemed to go 
in very small parties; I never saw more than two together, and at the time I was in 
Somaliland, 7. e. from May to August, the tracks were always solitary. 
“They appear often to fall victims to wild beasts, more often than most Antelopes. I 
found one killed by a lioness, another by a panther, and a third by wild dogs. Both 
the last were bucks—in fact I came across many more males than females, but this 
may have been chance. 
“Their coat of slaty grey with irregular stripes harmonizes wonderfully with the 
