THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
at an elevation of much over three thousand feet above sea -level. It is said 
to be plentiful on the Lower Tana River, and I have found it to be so all 
along the Northern Gwas N’yiro, from its junction with the Gwasa Narok 
to the Lorian Swamp. I have also met with gerenuk in the dry, hot country 
to the south of Voi Station, on the Uganda Railway. 
In my own experience I have met with gerenuks either singly or in pairs, 
or in small herds numbering from three or four to a dozen individuals. 
At the time of year — February, March and April — that my observations 
were made on the Gwas N’yiro River, I fancy that the rut was in 
progress, as, although I sometimes met with a full-grown male gerenuk 
accompanied by only one female, when there were herds containing from 
four or five to a dozen females they were accompanied by only one big 
buck, though there might be one or two younger males with the herd as 
well. On several occasions I met with two nearly full-grown gerenuk bucks 
living together which had doubtless been expelled from herds by bigger 
and stronger males. Although gerenuks are said to be tame and inquisitive 
in those parts of their range where they have not been much hunted, they 
very soon lose these characteristics where they have been much shot at, 
and become excessively wild and wary; and as their eyesight is 
extraordinarily acute, and their senses of scent and hearing well developed, 
they become in such districts very difficult to approach. Owing to the 
great length of their legs and necks, their range of vision is very 
considerable, and when standing on the alert, behind bushes, with the 
small head only just showing, and held horizontally so that the horns of 
the males are perfectly invisible from in front, a gerenuk is very difficult 
to pick up, yet it will itself see anything which moves anywhere up to a 
very long distance. On the Gwas N’yiro River, near Archer’s Post, I 
found it most difficult to get within shot of a gerenuk at all; but in the 
neighbourhood of the Lorian Swamp these animals were very much 
tamer; and when looking for lesser koodoos on the south side of the river, 
and still -hunting by myself, and therefore noiselessly, through the thick 
bush, I on several occasions came so near to gerenuks that I might have 
killed them with a charge of buck shot. The gerenuk is, I think, by 
preference a pure browser; at least, all those I shot or saw shot seemed to 
have nothing but leaves in their stomachs. 
Though I often met with gerenuks quite close to the Gwas N’yiro River, 
I do not think they ever drank there. In fact, I am inclined to believe that 
they never drink at all, but obtain all the liquid they require by chewing the 
168 
