324 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
hunt the ostrich. We saw an ostrich and its half-grown chick 
walking over the bare plain, followed by an unladen camel, behind 
which were stalking 
the Midgans. They 
said that they had 
been after the birds 
since the morning of 
the day before, and 
having already killed 
the female, hoped to 
get the male bird then 
or on the following 
day, and if successful 
they would catch and 
rear the young one. 
Ostriches are said to 
be often shot by fol- 
lowing them on horse- 
back, the riders being 
placed in relays along 
the probable line of 
flight. They are kept 
MALE PLATEAU GAZELLE (Gazella spekei). moving by day to pre- 
Length of horns on curve, 11* inches. Vent their feedin & f 0r 
they cannot see to move 
or feed by night, so that in a few days they become weak and 
are thus easily ridden down. Midgdns often keep a few of them 
tame, no doubt mostly caught when very young, but I have 
never seen ostrich-farming on a large scale in Somaliland. 
The spotted liysena ( W ardha) is very common, but the striped 
hyama ( Didar ) rather rare. There is a wild dog called Yei, 
which the natives say hunts in packs, but I have never seen one. 
Spotted hyaenas prowl round the zerfba of the traveller every 
night, looking for scraps of meat. I have had goats carried off 
when tethered tothezerlba. Among the karias they sometimes 
carry off children and kill women, and men found alone in the 
bush are often attacked by them, the face being nearly always 
seized and a large piece torn away. So voracious is the hyaena 
that it often pulls off the tail of a camel or the udder of a 
cow. 
Crocodiles (Jahaz) swarm in the Webbe Shabeleh river. There 
are a few schools of hippopotami ( Jer ), one of which had its usual 
