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THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
dives under the bushes, and the animal goes off at a long crouch- 
ing trot, stopping now and again behind some bush to gaze. It 
seldom gallops, and its pace is never very fast. In the whole 
shape of the head and neck, with the extended muzzle and 
slender lower jaw, there is a marked resemblance between the 
Gerenuk and the Dibcitag. The texture of the coat is much 
alike in both. The horns of immature buck Gerenuk have 
almost exactly the same shape as those of the Dibcitag. The 
average length of Waller’s gazelle horns is about thirteen inches. 
The females are hornless ; they sometimes lose or desert their 
young ones, as I have now and then come on fawns living 
alone in the jungle. The Gerenuk stands a good deal higher 
than an Indian blackbuck, but would be about the same weight. 
Scemmerring’s Gazelle ( Gazella soemmerringi) 
Native name, Aoul 
When first I was staying at Bulh&r, Aoul could be seen from 
the bungalow grazing on the plain. The Bulh&r Maritime 
Plain used to be full of them, but they have been so persecuted 
by sportsmen that they have now retired to some distance. The 
bush in the Bulh&r Plain is delightful for sport when not over- 
run by the Somali flocks and herds. 
The Aoul weighs about the same as the Gerenuk , but has a 
shorter neck and a more clumsy-looking head, and is altogether 
a coarser animal. It is a grass-feeder and lives in the open 
plains or in scattered bush, never in thick jungle, and prefers 
tolerably flat ground. The white hind- quarters can be seen 
from a great distance, making a herd look like a flock of sheep 
in the haze of the plains. I have never seen them in the cedar- 
forests on the top of Gblis, but in the hartebeest ground to the 
south they are common, and may often be seen in large herds 
along with the hartebeests, and they are abundant all over the 
Haud and Ogaden and near the Webbe. 
They are, I think, the most stupid and easy to shoot of all 
Somali antelopes, and their habits are identical with those of 
the Indian blackbuck, although they are not equal to it in beauty 
and grace of movement. Aoul often make long and high jumps 
when going away, presumably to look over the backs of the 
others. They are inquisitive like hartebeests, and will follow a 
caravan in the open ; if fired at, they make off across the front, 
