288 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XIII 
able sarroundings because their own coloration was 
suitable to that district. There are no means of decidins^ 
^ O 
whether a species became differentiated in the district 
in which we find it, or has wandered to that part from 
its original home. 
The pretty antelope named after Joseph Thomson, 
who discoverd it during his journey through Masailand 
to the Victoria Nyanza (1883), is abundant in the 
country between Kilimanjaro and Lake Baringo ; its 
northern limit lies a few miles above Lake Nakuru. 
Both sexes possess horns ; they are larger in the buck 
than in the doe (p. 16). Usually these gazelles run 
about in herds of ten does and one buck, but larger com¬ 
panies are seen, sometimes consisting of fifty animals. 
In districts where they have not been worried by sports¬ 
men they are easy to approach. When much shot 
at they are wary and cautious and as they run, or 
intermingle with herds of other animals, give the 
alarm. Everyone who has made a careful stalk towards 
game has suddenly been annoyed by a “ Tommy ” 
jumping along wagging his tail and warning all the 
animals in the neighbourhood. The almost constant 
agitation of the tail is peculiar to this antelope. 
Thomson’s gazelles have never been brought alive to 
the Zoological Gardens, but they thrive in confinement 
in British East Africa. 
When Captain Grant accompanied Speke on his 
memorable journey to the Victoria Nyanza in 1863, 
he discovered a beautiful gazelle which has been named 
after him. It is common on the grasslands of the East 
Africa Protectorate and often runs with Thomson’s 
gazelle. Both sexes of Grant’s gazelle are horned ; the 
horns of the buck are large, handsome, and more or 
less lyriform. They are thirty inches in length. Some 
examples of this antelope weigh 150 pounds. Among 
a herd of zebra, oryx, hartebeest, or giraffe Grant’s 
gazelle is a useful outpost and gives timely warning 
of the sportsmen’s approach. 
