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we met with examples of this Gazelle at least 35 miles from the nearest water as the 
crow flies. As it was the dry season these animals could have obtained no moisture 
except dew unless they travelled that distance. Although at present the most plentiful, 
this, I fear, will be one of the first of the Antelopes of Somaliland to disappear, and 
the Reservation, as now laid down, will be of little or no use in protecting it.” 
To Mr. Alfred E. Pease, M.P., F.Z.S., we are greatly indebted for the 
following notes on his experiences with this Antelope .— 
“ Soemmerring’s Antelope is widely distributed throughout Somaliland. In the 
following notes my remarks are confined to my own personal observations of this species 
during two expeditions. The first was in the north-western corner of the British Somali 
Protectorate, the second across the Haud into Ogaden and the country south of Harrar 
frequented by the Rer Mellingowr Ogaden. The average height of an adult male 
Soemmerring’s Gazelle is about 35 inches at the shoulder, with a girth behind the 
elbow of 32 inches. Unfortunately I never weighed any specimen. In colour they are 
amongst the most beautiful of the African Antelopes, and to see large herds of them 
moving about as the first bright gleams of the sun in the early morning touch them 
is one of the prettiest of the many charming sights that meets the traveller’s eye in this 
part of Africa. Their colour is an extremely rich clear pale orange on the body, spread 
evenly over the back, flanks, and running in narrowing bands down the four legs; this 
colour is set off by a wide margin of snowy white, which not only covers the whole of 
the belly and inner side of the legs, but which cuts back into the rump, so that when the 
Gazelle is standing with its tail towards you, you see little else but the snowy stern. 
Their heads are beautifully marked, the pervading tint forming the groundwork being 
of a slightly browner and fainter hue than the body, relieved by an almost black band 
running down from between the horns to the nostrils, and covering both sides of the 
nose and facial ridge ; a short band, also very distinct, of the same colour runs down the 
tear-mark below the eye. In old bucks these dark stripes are often very nearly jet- 
black ; in younger males and females the colouring varies from pale to dark brown. 
The throat is sometimes white, and when not altogether so, generally wears a more or 
less distinct crescent of white about two-thirds down the lower part of the underside 
of the neck. Both males and females carry heavy horns for animals of their size. The 
female’s horns are quite as long as, and perhaps slightly longer in proportion to their 
age than, the male’s, but they are weaker and less regular, though almost as deeply 
notched and annulated as in the buck. In general form they may be described as 
lyrate in a front view ; the tips often point exactly towards each other, being separated 
sometimes two inches, sometimes even more than six. Sometimes the tips point back- 
wards, and sometimes distinctly forwards. 
«The ‘ Aoul,’ as the Somalis call this Antelope, is almost ubiquitous in Somaliland. 
I have seen it within a few hours of Bulhar and Berbera on the maritime plain, whilst 
in 1896 we observed herds of it on the prairies to the south of the Elmas Mountains. 
Once in the mountains, whether in the ranges of the Gadabiirsi country or of the 
Golis, you lose it and do not find it again, unless it be in some interlying plain, till 
