THE KLIPSPRINGER 
from it, in the general colour of their coats, have been recently recognized 
by British and German naturalists, such as the Abyssinian klipspringer 
(Oreotragus saltator saltatrixoides), which has a wide range in North-East 
Africa; the Masai klipspringer (O. s. schillingsi ), of British and German 
East Africa, in which the females usually carry horns; the Somali race 
(0. 5. somalicus ); the Nyassa klipspringer (0. s. aceratos), in which the 
forequarters are reddish or ochery yellow; and the recently discovered 
Nigerian race (0. s. portensi). 
In whatever part of Africa they may be found, however, klipspringers 
are klipspringers not only in general appearance, but in their habits and 
mode of life. The rocky ground they frequent, and which, as the formation 
of their feet shows, is alone suitable to them, may lie at very varying 
altitudes. In the Gape Colony I have met with klipspringers on high 
mountain ranges, and in East Africa on isolated hills of small altitude. 
In the country now known as Southern Rhodesia, klipspringers used to be 
very plentiful throughout the granite formation, not only amongst 
continuous ranges of hills and in the innumerable rocky kopjes which 
stud the country, but also amongst the rocks and boulders through which 
many of the rivers run on their way to the Zambesi or the Limpopo. When 
disturbed in such situations, they will not take across country to the 
nearest hill, but run backwards and forwards amongst the rocks and 
boulders with which the channels of such rivers are encumbered. Run, 
however, is not the right word, as they jump from rock to rock. It is not 
usual for klipspringers to make great leaps; but if cornered, either by 
dogs or human hunters, they would probably not hesitate to do so. The 
formation of their hoofs enables them to get a foothold on the smallest 
projection from, or inequality in, the seemingly smooth surface of a 
perpendicular boulder, and they commonly make their way either up or 
down such rock surfaces by a series of little jumps. When frightened on a 
hillside, they always run upwards, frequently stopping to look back, and 
thus offering easy shots to their pursuers. If surprised on a very small 
isolated granite kopje, as they sometimes may be, they will leave it and 
make their way across the level ground to another hill. I was once snowed 
up for a week on one of the highest passes of the Sneeuwberg range in the 
Cape Colony, between Middelburg and Colesberg, and whilst hunting for 
rheboks during that time on this high mountain range I frequently saw 
klipspringers lying sunning themselves on the bare, open snowfields 
above the wooded kloofs. Klipspringers are not gregarious, but are usually 
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