Philip Lutley Sclater

“ Aroused from its snug form, the ‘Artful Dodger’ clears with one vigorous and elastic bound the nearest bush, and diving low on the other side among the heather and brushwood, continues alternately leaping and plunging whilst it flies straight as a dart to the nearest thicket—before seeking an asylum in which, and not unfrequently also during its retreat, it rises like the hare upon its hinder legs, and having thus reconnoitred the foe above the intervening vegetation, wheels with an impatient sneeze to the right about, and proceeds ducking and bounding as before. ”

“ Down come all four feet together with a single thump, and nimbly spurning the earth beneath, away they soar again, as if about to take flight—invariably clearing a road or beaten track by a still higher leap than all—as if their natural disposition to regard man as an enemy indicated them to mistrust even the ground upon which he had trodden. ”

“ The natives of Southern Africa occasionally arm their spears with the horns of the Oryx; and the Hollanders of the Cape have them polished and headed with silver, to serve as walking-sticks, for which purpose they are frequently too long! Strong, active, and vigorous, the Gemsbok boldly defends itself when pressed by the hunter, using its horns with amazing energy and address, by striking right and left at its assailant with prodigious violence. ”

“ Constantly the dainty little Sand-antelopes would spring away through the bushes at my approach. These charming little creatures, called in Somali-land ‘Dĭk-dĭks,’ in size scarcely as big as an English hare, are the most dainty miniatures of the Antelope race. They are ever in pairs of male and female, are much alike, except that the male has two tiny horns about an inch or two long, with a brown tuft of hair between them. Their skins vary in colour from a silvery grey to a russet-brown. ”

“ Rejoicing especially in low belts of shaded hillocks, and in the isolated groves of Acacia capensis which, like islands in the ocean, are scattered over many of the stony and gravelly plains of the interior, large herds of them are also to be seen grazing like droves of oxen on the more verdant meadows, through which some silver rivulet winds in rainbow brightness betwixt fringes of sighing bulrushes. Fat and lethargic groups may be seen scattered up and down the gentle acclivities, some grazing on the hill side, and others lazily basking in the morning sunbeam. ”

“ It is a grass-feeder, and lives in the open plains or in scattered bush, and never in thick jungle, and prefers tolerably flat ground. The white hind-quarters can be seen from a great distance, making a herd of Aoul 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 Gólis, but in the hartebeest-ground to the south they are common. They are often met with in large herds along with the hartebeests, and are very common all over the Haud and Ogádén and near the Webbe. ”

“ Beginning with the North Atlantic, we find several species of Phoca inhabiting various parts of this area, and the Grey Seal, Halichœrus, and the Bladder Seal, Cystophora, exclusively confined to it. In the North Pacific all the four true Seals belong to the genus Phoca, and three of them are identical with the North Atlantic species, but when we descend as far south as the Gulf of California on the American coast we meet with a species of Sea-elephant, Macrorhinus, which, like Otaria, has no doubt penetrated up here thus far from its ancestral abode in the Antarctic Ocean. ”

“ No antelope possesses more completely the lively gambolling manners of the young kid—none bound with greater force or precision from rock to rock, or clear the yawning abyss with more fearless activity. ”

“ When excited by the appearance of any suspicious object, or aroused by any unusual noise, the Kokoon is wont to appear much more grim and ferocious than it actually proves—not unfrequently approaching with an air of defiance, as if resolved to do battle with the hunter, but decamping on the first exhibition of hostility on his part. ”

“ The greater part of these wild uplands would appear at first to be a perfect desert, but, as a matter of fact, on closer inspection, it will be found that there is hardly a slope, however rocky, or an expanse of sand, however thirsty-looking, where an occasional tuft of grass or bunch of sweet-scented herb may not be found, while wherever streams of water exist their banks are often ornamented by the greenest of turf and studded with flowers of the most brilliant hues. ”

“ The appearance of a herd of Oryx is very imposing. They are some of the most elegant and symmetrical of animals, their motions being those of a wild horse rather than of an Antelope. Their favourite pace appears to be either a steady quick walk or a trot; they rarely break into a gallop unless greatly alarmed. When frightened, they dash off, sometimes snorting and putting their heads down as if charging, raising their long tails, and looking very formidable. ”

“ Another attractive bird of the Alps is the Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax alpinus) , which may be seen in flocks in many of the precipitous cliffs of the higher mountains. There is a large company of them on the Görnergrat above the Riffelalp (alt. 10,200 ft.) , where they inhabit the southern face of the jagged rocks overlooking the Görner Glacier. They are continually on the move, uttering as they fly about a sort of subdued cackle, and making elegant evolutions in the air. At times they retreat into the ragged rocks, in the holes of which they no doubt build their nests. ”

“ We now come to the distribution of the Hartebeest in South Africa in more modern days. Mr. T. E. Buckley, who published some interesting notes on the range of the large Mammals in South Africa in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1876 and 1877, tells us that from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape Colony it had then become one of the rarest. He observed it only on three or four occasions during his journey into the interior—once just before reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the Colony of Natal. ”

“ The master buck of the herd, seeing an impertinent intruder on his ground, trots out at once to do battle for the doe, but the screen puzzles him, so before coming close he generally circles round to try and see behind it. As he moves, the screen is shifted round, the men scrambling round on hands and knees behind it, and if there are two Englishmen bursting with suppressed laughter in addition to the two natives, all scuffling round as the screen moves and trying to keep their legs out of sight, the business is most comical. ”

“ The thin covering of earth supported only a scant and faded vegetation, together with a few scrubby trees and bushes which grew from the fissures of the rock. Surmounted [19] by a pair of jagged ibex-looking horns, the magpie-head of a sturdy old hull, protruded above a thin copse of brushwood through which I was riding, was not to be mistaken. I sprang from my horse, and as the whole bloom-coloured herd arose to make its rush, sent a bullet spinning betwixt the ribs of their gallant leader. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the two Gazelles which inhabit the maritime plain and the high inland plateau of Somaliland respectively, although they are closely allied, and have been confused together by some writers, belong to distinct species, distinguishable by well-marked characters. The Gazelle of the interior plateau, which we treat of first, when compared with that of the coast-land is at once recognizable by the generally browner colour, the darker lateral band, the black nose-spot, and above all by the wrinkled and elevated nose of the adult, which is not met with in the sister species. ”

“ Long, padded, and standing out vertically from the side, it resembles moss in texture, and constitutes, as in the chamois of the Alps, a natural cushion to protect the animal from the contusions to which its habits must render it constantly liable. ”

“ To sportsmen in general the majority of the species [122] are little known, partly owing to their being too small to afford any sport and with but poor horns for trophies, but mainly owing to their inhabiting thick bush, so that they are hardly ever seen. One species, however, the common S. African Duiker, the popular name of which we have extended to all the members of the genus, is well known to every sportsman who has visited that country, both on account of its extreme abundance in most localities, and of its inhabiting more open districts than its congeners, the Bush-Duikers. ”

“ Its strong individuality must ever stand out in the minds of those who have been so fortunate as to see and shoot it, and it is certainly one of the chief objects of interest in the splendid fauna of that country. Apart from its satin-like hide, sweeping horns, erect mane, and great strength, the Sable Antelope presents an appearance of fearlessness and nobility that is very striking, to say the least of it. Though the Koodoo surpasses his rival in elegance and general appearance when dead, he is but a skulker, and makes but a poor show beside the Sable on the Veldt. ”

“ Exceedingly shy and possessed of a keen scent and a hawk-vision, it is difficult enough to approach within rifle-range; but the little herd, when thus in motion, usually winding round the base of a hill instead of taking directly up the acclivity, an opportunity is often presented to the pursuer to gallop across the path they have selected, and thus obtain an easy snap-shot. ”

“ As the traveller advances over the trackless expanse, hundreds of this delicately formed antelope bound away on either side of his path with meteor-like and sportive velocity, winging their bird-like flight by a quick succession of those singularly elastic leaps which have given rise to its colonial appellation, and which enable it to surpass, as well in swiftness as in grace, almost every other mammiferous quadruped. ”

“ Much of the Haud is bush-covered wilderness or open semi-desert, but some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in early summer, covered, far as the eye can reach, with a beautiful carpet of green grass, like English pasture-land. ”