CURIOUS CATERPILLAR 
171 
The morning after our arrival at Odewein, I went out 
north of the river on foot, and came to a large plain, upon 
which a number of small herds of Speke’s gazelle were 
disporting themselves, but my shooting was erratic, and I 
failed to secure one. From the top of a small hill I got a 
magnificent view of the surrounding country — Burao Wells 
to the north-east Eyk and the great Toyo open plain to 
the south. 
Along the banks of the ' tug ’ were a number of francolin, 
which afforded very good sport and capital eating. This 
was also the best place for moths I had ever met with in 
Somaliland. An enormous number of caterpillars crawled 
over the herbage, among which I noticed some of the hawk- 
moths and a curious black ‘ looper,’ with yellow bands down 
the sides of its body. This caterpillar had six legs in front, 
six in the middle, and two at the end or tail of its body. 
When it moved, the loop occurred between the three fore- 
legs and the three middle legs, so — 
The following day I had great sport upon the open plain 
with Speke’s gazelle, and then marched for a place called 
Bally Maroli, where Clarke’s gazelle {^Ammordorcas clarhei) 
the ' dibitag ’ of the Somalis, was reported by my men sent 
out to look for game. The country now altered from stony 
yellow ground to red ground covered with a few low trees 
and bushes and huge red ant-hills. 
I was the first to see a herd of dibitag antelope, and 
very curious they looked with their long necks and tails, 
the latter held up straight on end like a wart hog’s. What 
struck me at once was their marvellous resemblance to the 
surrounding country and colours ; their skin, being of a 
purple-gray, showing up in some lights quite red, harmon- 
ized exactly with the dull purple grass and thorn-bushes, 
and the red sand. 
