292 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 
wary as the common gazelle was tame. It seemed to 
prefer browsing, while the common gazelle grazes. 
The handsome oryx, with their long horns carried by 
both sexes, and their colouring of black, white, and dun 
grey, came next to the gazelle in point of numbers. 
They were generally found in herds of from half a dozen 
to fifty individuals, often mixed with zebra herds. There 
were also solitary bulls, probably turned out of the herds 
by more vigorous rivals, and often one of these would 
be found with a herd of zebras, more merciful to it than 
its own kinsfolk. All this game of the plains is highly 
gregarious in habit, and the species associate freely with 
one another. The oryx cows were now generally accom¬ 
panied by very young calves, for, unlike what we found 
to be the case with the hartebeest oil the Athi, the oryx 
on the Guaso Nyero seem to have a definite calving¬ 
time—September. 1 I shot only bulls (there was no 
meat, either for the porters or ourselves, except what 
I got with the rifle), and they were so wary that almost 
all those I killed were shot at ranges between three 
hundred and five hundred yards ; and at such ranges 
I need hardly say that I did a good deal of missing. 
One wounded bull which, the ground being favourable, 
I galloped down, turned to bay and threatened to 
charge the horse. We weighed one bull; it tipped the 
scales at four hundred pounds. The lion kills we found 
in this neighbourhood were all oryx and zebra ; and 
evidently the attack was made in such fashion that the 
oryx had no more chance to fight than the zebra. 
1 Of course this represents only one man’s experience. I wish 
there were many such observations. On the Athi in May I found 
new-born wildebeest and hartebeest calves, and others several 
months old. In June in the Sotik I saw new-born eland calves, 
and topi calves several months old. In September on the Guaso 
Nyero all the oryx calves were new-born. The zebra foals were 
also very young. 
