XII 
THE FAUNA OF SOMALILAND 
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25 inches from base to tip. The longest I have shot or seen 
were between 27 and 28 inches in length in a straight line. 1 
The horns are very sharp, but I have never seen a lesser koodoo 
attempt to charge. 
The Somali Hartebeest ( Bubalis swaynei ) 
Native name, Sig 
The Sig or Somali hartebeest was described by Dr. Sclater ; 
his description and notes ( P.Z.S . , Feb. 1892) being taken from 
specimens shot and sent home by myself. I was not the first to 
shoot the Sig, but mine were the first specimens submitted to 
scientific investigation. 
South of Golis Range, and at a distance of about one hundred 
and twenty miles from the coast, are open plains from four to six 
thousand feet above sea-level, alternating with broken ground 
covered with thorn-jungle. These patches of ban or prairie are 
the only kind of country where the hartebeest is to be found. 
Not a bush is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or 
forty miles in extent. I first saw the Sig when coming on to 
ground which had not then been visited by Europeans, and found 
one of these plains covered with hartebeests, there being perhaps a 
dozen herds in sight at one time, each containing three or four 
hundred of these antelopes. Hundreds of bulls w T ere scattered 
singly on the outskirts and in spaces between the herds, grazing, 
fighting, or lying down. The scene described was at a distance 
of over a hundred and twenty miles from Berbera. 
The hartebeest bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three 
couples may be fighting round the same herd at once. Perhaps 
the easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans 
round above the wind to drive them towards you, at the same 
time lying down in the grass. In this way a shot may be got 
within a hundred yards, but no one would care to shoot many 
hartebeests, except for food. There is no chance of creeping up 
to hartebeests unless the huge ant-hills, often twenty-five feet 
high, are conveniently situated. 
Often beisa and Soemm erring’s gazelles are seen in company 
with these great troops of hartebeests, but the beisa are much 
1 These were measured by the writer on the spot soon after the animal was 
killed. But a few years later, after they had been exposed in a collection, 
they were found to have shrunk over half an inch. 
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