EAST AFRICAN ORYX The East African Oryx is known to the Swahilis as ‘Cheroa.’ This oryx was for a long time confounded with the _Oryx beisa_ of the Somali country, which, however, does not range south of the Tana river. The cheroa is easily distinguished from the other by the presence of a tuft of long black hair on the ears. It is found in the Kilimanjaro district in greater numbers (particularly near Useri) than elsewhere. It is also plentiful in the Galla country, between the Sabaki and Tana rivers, and I have myself seen it within a mile of the sea at Merereni. It is found more often in open bush country than in the bare arid plains. It is not only a beautiful beast, but is very shy, difficult to approach, and exceedingly tough, and for these reasons many sportsmen covet its head more than the trophies of any other kind of antelope. The skin of its neck is extraordinarily thick, and _à propos_ of this, all head-skins preserved as trophies should have the skin of the neck shaved down to at least half its thickness to ensure its being properly cured. The oryx is found in herds varying in number from six or eight up to thirty or forty. A bull oryx is very often found entirely by himself, and occasionally with a herd of _G. Grantii_ or other antelopes. It is perhaps as well to warn sportsmen to approach oryx, when lying wounded, with caution, as on one occasion my gun-bearer, on going up to cut the throat of an oryx, received a severe blow on the thigh from the side of one of the wounded beast’s horns. The blow might have been very serious had the oryx caught him with the point of his horns instead of with the flat. [Illustration: Oryx collotis and Bubalis Cokei]