I had given the troopers some spare cartridges to amuse themselves with, by taking shots at marks, and the native officer, who had been strolling about below the cliffs, fired a shot at an old male baboon and brought him down. I was in camp, and on hearing a hot fire going on, ran out, thinking we were attacked by raiders. It transpired that an Arab camelman had been sent up to the base of the cliffs to get the body of the baboon, and had been attacked by the whole troop from above, having to beat a hasty retreat under cover of the fire from several Sniders, and on my joining the men, another male fell to my Express, tumbling perpendicularly nearly fifty feet down the cliffs. When at last we secured the carcases, I was struck by their wonderfully human-like appearance, and I have never again brought myself to shoot a monkey. I have seen baboons scores of times since, and have never molested them, and as they soon get over their shyness and fear of man, I have been able to watch their habits closely.
Speke’s Gazelle ♀ (Gazella spekei).
Length of horns on curve, average 9 inches.
Besides these maned baboons, we found in the belt of forest on the Webbe banks a maneless baboon and a small tree monkey. In parts of this forest the monkeys and baboons simply swarm. They spring about everywhere above and around the traveller, and the stench is nearly unbearable.
Among game birds the most noticeable are three varieties of the bustard tribe (Salalmadli), three varieties of guinea-fowl (Digirin), partridges, sand grouse, and a wild goose in Ogádén. Birds of prey are very conspicuous, there being at least two kinds of vultures (Gur-Gur) and a small black and white eagle, kites, ravens, and the great black and white carrion storks, which stand about four feet high and have very large orange-coloured beaks.
Jackals (Dowáo), with black and silver backs, are very common; also foxes, a small variety of hare (Bokheila), a badger very like the English kind, two kinds of squirrel, gray and brown (Dabergáli), and the curious little rock-rabbits (Bauna). There is a mouse-coloured animal of the ferret kind (Shók-Shók), which lives under the roots of trees and hunts in packs. Snakes are numerous, three kinds most often met with being an adder (abeso), a variegated rock snake (abguri), and a black snake called muss, all of which are said to be very deadly. There is also a lizard nearly four feet long. Among the insects may be mentioned mosquitoes (Kan-ád)—they are only troublesome, however, on the Webbe and in the Esa and Gadabursi countries; two kinds of gadfly; a large spider (Hangeyu), which produces a web almost exactly like golden silk, which can be found in any old zeríba in the Haud; scorpions, and two kinds of centipede (Hangagári).