DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 555 
The Oribi 
Ourebia 
Ourebia Laurillard, 1841, Diet. Univ. d’H. N., I, p. 622; type 0 . scoparia 
of South Africa. 
There is nothing distinctive about the uniform tawny- 
yellow color of the oribi, but it may be known at a glance 
from the reedbuck, which it resembles in color, by its small 
body size, long, slender legs, and rudimentary tail. Other 
important characters are the long tufts or brushes at the 
knees, the bare space on the head immediately below the 
ear, the rounded opening of the anteorbital gland in front 
of the eye, and the short, parallel horns of the male, which 
are ringed at the base. At the groin are a pair of deep 
inguinal sacks, marked by a growth of long, peculiar, pithy 
hair. The skull is distinguishable by the large size of the 
anteorbital fossa, which equals the orbit in area, and by the 
lack of the sinus between the nasal and the lachrymal bones. 
The snout is more elongate than in the steinbok or pygmy 
antelope. The females exceed the males slightly in size, 
their skulls averaging one-fourth of an inch greater. The 
sexes are alike in color with the exception of the crown, 
which is marked between the ears in the female by a large 
dark-brown blotch and is much darker than that of the male. 
The coloration of the young does not differ from that of 
the adult female in pattern, tone, or extent of the dark crown 
patch. The oribi, though extremely local, has a wide distri¬ 
bution. It ranges from the Cape northward along the East 
Coast drainage to the highlands of Abyssinia, and thence 
west along the borders of the Sahara to the West Coast in 
Senegal, but is absent from the Congo forest area. Owing 
to the local character of its distribution, the oribi breaks up 
into numerous geographical races showing slight color char¬ 
acters, and on this account it is quite difficult to distinguish 
the races from the species. It is quite probable that not 
more than two or three distinct species are recognizable. 
This pretty and graceful little antelope was first met 
with by us on the Uasin Gishu Plateau, a fairly high, rather 
