Chapter VIII: Appendix (7)

“We were told by the natives that these Antelopes (called by them
‘_Chobé_’ or ‘_Njobé_’) existed in great numbers on one of the
small outlying islands which constitute the Sesse group in the
Victoria Lake. Being anxious to prove the truth of this report, we
embarked, and proceeded thither in canoes. The island in question,
which is situated well out in the Lake at a distance of some 10
miles from the main island, was reached on the afternoon of the
second day. The shores are low and rocky, and, with the exception
of a small turf-covered portion at its southern extremity, it is
entirely covered with dense, almost impenetrable bush,
interspersed only by a number of fine trees, principally species
of _Ficus_. In shape it is something like an irregular hour-glass,
being possibly a third of a mile in length and a few hundred yards
across its greatest width. A very short examination revealed the
presence of the Antelopes, and finding it impossible to approach
them by any ordinary methods of stalking, a drive was organized,
with the aid of the canoemen, with most satisfactory results: the
total bag amounted to 24 head, including some fine specimens both
male and female. This afforded ample testimony to their
extraordinary numbers, as, owing to the dense character of the
bush, it was impossible to see more than a few yards in any
direction, and many of them passed us unseen. The greater number
were killed in the first drive, after which the majority took
refuge in the Lake, which is said to be their habit when hard
pressed, though Speke describes them as being fierce and
aggressive under such circumstances. The specimens procured on
this occasion have been identified as true Sitatungas, though it
is impossible to imagine how they ever got on to the island, or
came to frequent a locality which is so entirely at variance with
their usual habits.

“These Antelopes are said to have also existed formerly on a small
neighbouring island, but to have been exterminated there by the
Ba-Sesse canoemen.”

During his recent travels in Uganda, Herr Oscar Neumann also obtained a series of skins of this Antelope, which, as already mentioned, he has most kindly lent to us for examination. We are sorry not to have received any exact particulars respecting the specimens, except that they were procured from the natives in the districts of Kavirondo, Usoga, and Uganda, on the shores of Lake Victoria. Herr Neumann has also sent us two pairs of horns of this species, which were obtained from the “Wakenji” in the swamps west of Mount Elgon. Along with these specimens we have received for comparison from the authorities of the Berlin Museum a flat skin obtained by Herr Stuhlmann near the slopes of Mt. Ruwenzori.

The National Museum of this country is, we regret to say, very imperfectly furnished with specimens of the East-African form of the Sitatunga, containing only the original examples of Speke. It will be evident, therefore, that Herr Neumann’s kind assistance in this matter has been of considerable value to us.

Our coloured illustration of this Antelope (Plate XCIII.) was prepared by Wolf, under Sir Victor Brooke’s instructions, from Speke’s original specimens. It will be noticed that the artist has joined the horns of the adult animal to a body which must have been copied from the young male, and has coloured the female from conjecture, representing it as greyish brown instead of yellowish red. The accompanying woodcut (fig. 110) was likewise prepared by Mr. Wolf under Brooke’s directions.

_April_, 1900.

128. SELOUS’S SITATUNGA.

LIMNOTRAGUS SELOUSI (Rothsch.).

[PLATE XCIV.]

“_Nakony_,” =Andersson=, Lake Ngami, p. 449 (1856); =Baines=, Expl.
S.W. Afr. p. 458 (1864).

_Tragelaphus eurycerus_, =Layard=, Cat. Mamm. S. Afr. Mus. p. 79
(1861).

_Tragelaphus spekii_, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659 (Chobé); =Brooke=,
P. Z. S. 1871, p. 484 (part.), 1878, p. 884 (part.); =Selous=, P. Z.
S. 1881, p. 753; id. Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 210 (1881); =Sclater=,
P. Z. S. 1890, p. 590, pl. xlvii. (Lake Ngami), 1893, pp. 724, 729
(Lake Mweru); =id.= List An. Z. Soc. 1896, p. 163; =Thomas=, P. Z.
S. 1891, p. 388 (part.); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891) (part.);
=Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsman in S. Afr. p. 40 (1892); =Ward=, Horn
Meas. p. 155 (1892), p. 197 (1896) (part.); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894) (part.);
=Johnst.= Brit. Centr. Afr. p. 306 (1897); =Selous=, in Ward’s Great
and Small Game of Africa, p. 470 (1899).

_Tragelaphus selousii_, =Rothsch.= Novit. Zool. v. p. 206 (1898);
=Rendall=, ibid. p. 212.

_Euryceros spekii_, =J. E. Gray=, Hand-l. Rum. 1873, p. 119 (part.).

Vernacular Names:—_Waterskap_ of Boers (_Nicolls & Eglington_);
_Nakong_ of Batauwani at Lake Ngami; _Sitatunga, Puvula_, and
_Unzuzu_ of the natives of the Chobé and Central Zambesi; _N’zoe_ of
the natives on the Lukanga River north of the Zambesi (_Selous_);
_Mula_ of the Awemba and _Nsowi_ of the Ulungu and Mambwé districts
of Mweru (_Crawshay_).

_Adult male._ Height at withers about 40 inches. Colour nearly uniform dark yellowish brown, becoming darker and of a more dusky hue on the shoulder, belly, and legs. Head a darker and richer brown, with a large whitish patch running inwards on each side from the inner corner of the eye; also a yellowish patch above the eye; two pale spots on the cheeks, the upper situated a short distance beneath the eye. Ears blackish behind, with a large grey patch below. Throat with an upper and lower white patch. Underside of tail white. Fore legs white on the inner side at the base and behind the knee; spots on the pasterns faint; hind legs white on the inner side down to the hock.

_Adult female._ Without horns, but nearly resembling the adult male in colour.

The skull of an adult male (type) gives the following measurements:—Basal length 10·5 inches; orbit to muzzle 6·5; greatest width 4·5; horn 21 in straight line, 25·75 round the curve. Hoof: length along front 4·10; thickness from back to front 1·5.

These descriptions are taken from the skin and skull of an adult male (the type), obtained by Mr. Coryndon on the Barotze River, and kindly lent to us by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, M.P.

In his original diagnosis of _Limnotragus selousi_, Mr. Rothschild took the characters of the female from the specimen of this sex, from Lake Ngami, now living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. In the specimens of _L. selousi_, however, from the Barotze River the immature female is of a rich red colour, inclining to black in the dorsal region, whereas the female from Lake Ngami was at the time of its arrival in England, when only half-grown, of the same nearly uniform tint as it is now when fully adult. Moreover, Mr. Selous, who has seen many skins of this Antelope from the Chobé, kindly informs us, in reply to an inquiry on this point, that the young are, according to his experience, never rufous in colour; although when newly born they are marked with white stripes and spots which subsequently disappear.

We cannot explain these discrepancies at present, but must leave the matter as it stands for the investigation of future observers.

_Hab._ Swamps of the district of Lake Ngami and similar localities
on the Zambesi and its tributaries; thence north to Lake Mweru.

The discovery of the existence of an Antelope of this water-loving group in South-west Africa was made even before Speke obtained his specimens of the last species in Karagweh. The well-known traveller, Charles John Andersson, met with the “Nakong,” as he calls it, during his explorations of Lake Ngami. In the volume descriptive of his four years’ wanderings, published in 1856, when calling attention to the great variety of large animals found in that district, more especially in the vicinity of the rivers, he mentions “two new species of Antelope, the _Nakong_ and the _Leché_,” and gives a lithographic plate, drawn by Wolf, to illustrate them as they appeared in their native haunts. Not having before him actual specimens of the former Antelope to draw from, the great artist had apparently only Andersson’s somewhat imperfect information upon which to prepare his likeness of the “Nakong.” He consequently gave a more prominent place in his illustration to the Leché (_Cobus lechee_), and hid the Nakong in a reed-bed, leaving only its kudu-like horns, of which Mr. Andersson’s friend, Col. Steele, was fortunately able to supply specimens, plainly visible. Andersson speaks of the Nakong as a “Waterbuck,” which, by means of its peculiarly long hoofs, not unfrequently attaining a length of six or seven inches, is able to traverse with great facility the reedy bogs and quagmires with which the country abounds.

Another well-known African explorer, Thomas Baines, who penetrated far into South-west Africa from Walfisch Bay a few years later, also mentions the _Nakong_ as amongst several new or little-known Antelopes found in that district.

About the same time also the South African Museum received specimens of this Antelope from the Lake Ngami district, through Mr. J. J. Wilson, of Otjimbinque, and Messrs. Chapman. Mr. Layard, in his Catalogue of the Mammals of that Museum, published in 1861, refers these specimens very doubtfully to _Tragelaphus eurycerus_, but shows very clearly by his description that they really belonged to the present species.

Sir John Kirk, in his article on the Mammals of Zambesia, read before the Zoological Society in 1864, mentions the “Nakong” as frequenting the papyrus and rushes on the River Chobé. He naturally refers it to _Tragelaphus spekii_, with which, until quite recently, it was generally believed to be identical. In the same way Sir Victor Brooke, in his article on Speke’s Antelope and its allied species, published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1871, comprises in his list of specimens of _Tragelaphus spekii_ those of the two allied forms, which we here treat of as probably distinct. Of these, his specimens “_h_” (“frontal bones, horns, and feet, in the collection of Mr. Oswell”) are, no doubt, referable to _Limnotragus selousi_.

Mr. Selous, in his excellent and often-quoted article on the Antelopes of Central South Africa (P. Z. S. 1881, p. 753), writes of this species (which Mr. Rothschild has appropriately named after the famous hunter) as follows:—

“This Antelope is only met with in the extensive swamps which
exist in some parts of the interior of Africa. In the reed-beds of
the Mababe, Tamalakan, and Machabe rivers it is to be found; and
in the vast marshes through which the Chobe runs it must exist in
considerable numbers, although, as it only emerges from the dense
reed-beds at night, it is scarcely ever to be seen. In 1879 I
tried hard to shoot some of these animals on the Chobe, searching
for them in a canoe amongst the reed-beds at early dawn and after
sunset; but though I disturbed several, and heard them splashing
away amongst the reeds and papyrus, I only saw one female alive,
though one morning I found a fine ram lying dead that had
evidently been killed fighting with a rival during the night. The
head and feet of this animal I preserved. The female that I saw
was standing breast deep in the water, in the midst of a bed of
reeds, feeding on the young shoots that just appeared above the
water. When she saw us she at once made off, making a tremendous
splashing as she plunged through the water. The natives told me
that very often when these Antelopes are met with under similar
circumstances they do not attempt to run, but, sinking down in the
water, submerge their whole bodies, leaving only their nostrils
above the surface, and trusting that their enemies will pass them
unobserved; they (the Kafirs) then paddle close alongside and
assegai them from the canoe. As all the Situtungas the skins of
which I saw had been killed with assegais, and not shot, I have no
doubt that this statement is correct. Another way the natives have
of killing them is by setting fire to the reeds when they become
quite dry, and then waiting for the Situtungas in their canoes in
one of the channels of open water by which the marsh is
intersected. Driven forwards by the advancing fire, the Antelopes
are at last obliged to swim across the open water to gain the
shelter of the reeds on the further side; and the natives are thus
often enabled to cut off and assegai some of them in mid stream.”

We have already alluded to the occurrence of this species in Barotze-land, where Mr. Coryndon obtained specimens for Mr. Rothschild. Still further to the north-east we find that a species of the Sitatunga group, which, we suppose, should also be referred to _L. selousi_, occurs, according to Sir Harry Johnston, “in the swamps of Lake Mweru, in the Loangwa valley, and in other parts of British Central Africa.” Mr. Richard Crawshay, C.M.Z.S., has favoured us with the following field-notes which he has drawn up as the result of his long experience with the animal-life of the district of Lake Mweru:—

“This Antelope is known by the people of the Itawa and Kabwiri—who
are, as I have before mentioned, branches of the Awemba—as ‘Mula.’
By the people of Ulungu and Mambwe (where I suppose it is also
found) it is known as ‘Nsowi.’

“I had been six months or more at Mweru before any proof was
forthcoming that such an animal existed. Then, when shooting wild-
fowl on the outskirts of a vast and impenetrable swamp between
Rhodesia and the Luao River, I came upon the remains of what had
been a fine pair of horns just on the margin of the water. The
horns had been submerged during the rains and were fast decaying.
All that was recoverable was one fairly sound horn with a fragment
of the frontal bone attached. This horn, I think, measured 21¾
inches.

“Some months later when at Mkula’s, on the Chisela River, I was
given by the chief a perfect, though smaller, pair of horns. A
skin was also offered me—I don’t know if it was _the_ skin—but so
discoloured with dirt and smoke, from lying in a native hut, that
I did not think it worth having.

“Mkula told me there were a good many ‘Mula’ in the swamps below
his town, and that one way or another his people had killed seven
or eight during the six years or so he had been at the Chisela
River, but that they were very difficult to get at, and when got
at—viz., roused—even more difficult to kill.

“On expressing my eagerness to shoot, or at least see, a ‘Mula,’
he did not give me much hope of doing either the one or the other.
A glance at the Chisela River reed-beds from a heap outside the
town did not reassure me. All the same, during two visits to
Mkula’s—one the middle of July, the other at the very end of
October 1892—I did my utmost to effect my object, spending the
greater part of my time in the swamp, wading and wallowing in mud,
water, and reeds, but found it killing work. Scarcely a native
would follow me in a second attempt. The combined rays of the sun,
mosquitos, leeches, and a most sickening stench from the swamp,
proved a severe trial to my patience and perseverance. Ultimately
I gave up without getting a shot at a ‘Mula.’ Luckily such hard
labour earned some reward. I saw two ‘Mula’ and heard others,
besides gaining an insight into their ways and haunts. Were I to
try again for this Antelope under similar conditions, I would
build a platform, 20 feet high or so, in the swamp, overlooking
the feeding-grounds of the ‘Mula,’ and would watch from this
platform say from 3.30 P.M. until dark. The remains of the
‘Mula’s’ head from the Luao River swamp, as also the horns given
me by Mkula, were sent home along with the other Antelopes’
heads.”

So far as we know, only two examples of this Sitatunga have ever reached Europe alive. Both of these are now living, in good health, in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in the Regent’s Park. The first arrival was a young female, received as a present from Mr. James A. Nicolls, F.Z.S., of Belmont House, Navan, Ireland, on October 14th, 1890. In a footnote to Nicolls and Eglington’s ‘Sportsman in South Africa’ we are informed that the animal in question was captured by Mr. Nicolls alongside the dead body of its dam, which had been shot by him in the Taoke swamp, forty miles from Lake Ngami.

On referring to Mr. Nicolls’s articles in the ‘Field’ newspaper, in which his “Travels and Sport along the Botletle River and round Lake Ngami” are narrated, we find the occurrence in question described as follows:—

“At midday (in August 1887) we arrived at Ku-Ku’s. A native
missionary, who has spent several years in this country
representing the London Missionary Society, informed us that his
efforts towards converting the Western Bamangwato tribes and
Makobas to Christianity had up to the present proved unsuccessful.
From him we also received intelligence that the Nakon waterbuck
was very plentiful in the Taoke swamp, a distance of twenty miles
off. This was indeed very joyful news to me, as I had always been
most anxious to shoot a specimen of this animal, a prize which, I
understood, had not previously been obtained by any white man, at
least south of the Zambesi. However, Ku-Ku strongly advised me not
to go shooting in the swamp till I had seen Moremi and obtained
his permission to do so, on account, Ku-Ku said, of that chief
being very unwilling to allow any strangers there, the district
being used by his people as a place of refuge in case of another
attack by the Matabele. I adopted his advice, which, as it turned
out afterwards, was rightly given.

“I arrived at De Nokane, Moremi’s town (a distance of 537 miles
680 yards from Khama’s). The station occupied by the chief is
situated on a small river which issues from the Okavango, and
finally gets lost in the vast Taoke swamp.

“At midday I came to a large Makoba village, built on a small
piece of rising ground adjoining the swamp. To the left, right,
and front, as far as the eye could reach, there was nothing
visible but vast patches of tall reeds; here and there, on
portions of more rising ground, little groves of dwarf fan-palms;
and occasionally, as if a godsend to relieve the monotony of such
a dreary landscape, a towering palm waved its feathered head to
the uncertain breeze.

“As I had still a long distance to walk before arriving at the
spot most frequented by the Nakon, and as I desired to be there at
least an hour before sundown (this, or shortly after daylight in
the morning, being the only time at which a fair chance of a shot
could be obtained), without making any delay, I at once entered
the swamp, and for the first half-hour waded knee-deep in water,
caused by a late overflow from the Taoke river, and my progress,
although very tiring, was at least endurable. Resting for about
twenty minutes on a small dry knoll, overgrown with fan-palms, my
Makoba guides, of whom I had three, pointed to a long green streak
of rushes about three miles off, which, they assured me, was very
much frequented by the game I was in search of. Progression now
became more difficult, as the water not only became much deeper,
but firm footing was more uncertain, owing to the burrowing of
fish in the alluvial soil. One of my guides now took the lead, and
with the end of his long fish assegai tried every inch of the
ground in front as we went along. Notwithstanding his solicitude
on my behalf, I had the misfortune to plunge head forward into a
hole, thoroughly saturating my clothing and filling my rifle with
water. It was nearly four o’clock in the afternoon when I arrived
at another small island within 300 or 400 yards of the fringe of
reeds I have before alluded to, and which was really the bed of
the Taoke choked up by rotten vegetation and papyrus-roots, the
river slowly percolating through the mass. Having enjoyed an
hour’s rest on this haven of safety, and the favourable time
having arrived, I again proceeded onwards, and found that my work
up to that time had been merely child’s play, compared to that
which I now had before me. There was no footing whatever
obtainable, with the exception of a network of papyrus-roots,
which stretched along in every direction, and was just
sufficiently tough to support a man, the bog moving up and down at
every footstep. To add to the charm of the situation, the
mosquitoes, prematurely disturbed from their afternoon siesta,
rose in clouds from the rotten swamp, biting my face, neck, and
hands most viciously. Groping and staggering along in this manner
till about an hour before sundown, I had seen no game, and was
just beginning to give it up as a bad job, when one of the Makobas
pointed out the figure of an animal lying, or standing, with a
portion of its back and the whole head out of the water, about 200
yards away. It was a Nakon ram, carrying a very fine pair of
horns; but from the position he was placed in, I saw there was no
earthly chance of killing him at the distance. Thinking to
approach a little, I advanced cautiously; but had scarcely
proceeded a dozen yards when, as if out of the water, not more
than 60 yards off, up jumped another one, bounding along crossways
with a most convulsive-looking movement. I took a very hasty shot,
and had the satisfaction of seeing the animal tumble over with a
big splash in the water. It turned out, unfortunately, to be a
doe, full-grown, with a young one at foot. I had shot my first
Nakon, and I solemnly affirm it will certainly be my last, except
under much more favourable circumstances. An attempt to bring out
the carcase that night being utterly useless, two Makobas slept on
the small island, and I myself turned back to the village, where I
arrived long after midnight, and, although completely done up with
fatigue, could not sleep a wink, owing to the myriads of
mosquitoes which preyed on me the whole night long.”

From Lake Ngami the little animal thus captured was carried by Mr. Nicolls and his companions in their waggon 800 miles to Kimberley, and thence brought by rail and steamer to London. On arrival at the Gardens it was placed in a sheltered compartment of the Gazelles’ sheds, in which the yard in front was covered with dried peat-fibre in order to suit its elongated hoofs. Accompanying the Secretary’s Report on the additions to the Society’s Menagerie in October 1890, in which its arrival was noticed, will be found a coloured plate by Mr. Smit, giving an accurate representation of the animal as it then appeared. The Sitatunga thus acquired quickly attained its full stature, and showing symptoms of readiness to breed, was placed, in 1894, in company with a male of the Congo species (_L. gratus_) which had been obtained by purchase from the Zoological Gardens, Hamburg, no male of its own species being available. From this union hybrids were born on February 12th, 1896, and on February 28th, 1897, being in each case of the female sex. The period of gestation was, in both cases, about seven months. The young animals in general appearance took after the colour of the female of _L. gratus_, being of a generally bright red colour with white lateral stripes and white spots on the haunches. Such a young one is well represented, along with its mother, in the background of our Plate XCIV. In June 1899 the Society were fortunate enough to obtain a fine adult male example of this Antelope from the Right Honourable Cecil J. Rhodes’s Park at Groot Schuur, near Capetown, from which the principal figure in our Plate XCIV. has been taken. Mr. Rhodes kindly accepted in exchange for it one of the female hybrids above mentioned. The Society have therefore at present a unique pair of this scarce and beautiful Antelope in the Collection, besides the female hybrid born in 1896.

The specimens in the National Collection referable to this form of the Sitatunga comprise two pairs of horns from the Chobé River (_Selous_), one pair of young horns from Lake Ngami (_J. A. Green_), the skin of an adult from the Zambesi (_Chapman_), and a pair of horns from Lake Mweru (_Crawshay_).

When Mr. Rothschild separated this southern form of the Sitatunga as _Tragelaphus selousi_ in 1898 (Nov. Zool. vol. v. p. 206), he did not distinctly state the specimen from which he took the description of the adult male, but we presume it to be the above-mentioned specimen from the Barotze District (_Coryndon_), which he has kindly lent us. For the type of his female, however, Mr. Rothschild expressly designates the female now living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. We are therefore, no doubt, correct in applying the appropriate specific name “_selousi_” to the present form.

_April_, 1900.

129. THE CONGAN SITATUNGA.

LIMNOTRAGUS GRATUS (Sclater).

[PLATE XCV.]

_Antelope from the Cameroons_, =Mitchell=, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 88.

_Tragelaphus gratus_, =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 452, pl. xliv. (♀),
1883, pp. 34, 36, pl. viii. (♂ ♀), 1889, p. 220; =Huet=, Bull. Soc.
Acclim. (4) iv. p. 275, fig. 23 (1887); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p.
387; =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 156
(1892); =id.= Records Big Game, p. 199 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894);
=Scl.= List An. Z. S. 1896, p. 62, fig. 24; =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm.
p. 952 (1898).

_Tragelaphus spekii_, =Peters=, MB. Ak. Berlin, 1876, p. 484;
=Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 78 (1897).

Vernacular Names:—_Kawe_ and _Mburi_ or _Mbuli_ of natives in the
Cameroons; _Nkaya_ and _Nkoko_ on the Congo.

_Adult male_ about 40 inches at the shoulder. Colour a dark rich, nearly chocolate, brown, becoming blacker upon the forehead, nose, throat, belly, and legs. Head with a white patch extending on to the nose from the inner corner of the eye on each side; two white cheek-spots and sometimes a pale patch above the eye; chin and rim of the upper lip white; two white patches on the throat, one at its upper, the other at its lower end. Body with dorsal line white; a row of white spots extending laterally above the belly, about six more or less defined white stripes on the flanks and haunches, and some white spots on the hind-quarters. Fore legs white on the inner side at the base; the fetlocks and pasterns whitish in front: hind limbs white in front of the knee and on the inner side of the cannon-bone down to the fetlocks; fetlocks and pasterns, like those of the fore limbs, whitish.

Horns with not more than two turns.

_Female._ Smaller than the male; of a rich chestnut-red, darker above than below; white markings on the head and body resembling those of the male in position and distinctness, but the spinal stripe black. Legs whitish on the inner sides below the knees and hocks; the outer sides dark in front down to the fetlock.

The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal length 11·5 inches, orbit to muzzle 6·5, greatest width 4·75.

_Hab._ West Africa, from the Cameroons to the Congo.

The first allusion that we can find to the occurrence of a species of the Sitatunga-group on the West Coast of Africa is in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1848, where it is recorded that the Secretary exhibited, at the meeting on June 13th, the skull and horns of an Antelope closely allied to _Antilope euryceros_, Ogilby, and read a letter in reference to it received from Capt. William Allen, R.N. Capt. Allen described the appearance of the animal from memory only, but stated that he had himself obtained the specimen at a place called Kokki on the Cameroons River. The pair of horns in question are now in the British Museum, and belong, in all probability, to the present species.

In 1871 Sir Victor Brooke read an excellent paper on Speke’s Antelope and its allies before the Zoological Society of London. The list of specimens of his _Tragelaphus spekii_ given in the ‘Proceedings’ contains examples of all three species of _Limnotragus_, as we here consider them. The figure (fig. 112, p. 167) of specimen “_g_” (which we are allowed to reproduce by the kindness of that Society) was taken, we believe, from a West-Coast example, and is therefore referable to _L. gratus_.

In 1880 Mr. Sclater received from Mr. R. W. Rolleston, of Liverpool, a flat skin of the very remarkable red female of this species, said to have been received from Gaboon. This was exhibited and described at the meeting of the Zoological Society on June 15th of that year, and a new species—_Tragelaphus gratus_—was founded upon it. Sclater’s original description was accompanied by a beautiful figure of the animal prepared by Joseph Wolf, and put upon the stone by Smit. Soon after this date Sclater was able to acquire some further information concerning this interesting Antelope. On visiting the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris in the autumn of the same year, his attention was called to a pair of Antelopes lately received from the Jardin d’Acclimatation, which he at once recognized as being the male and female of his _Tragelaphus gratus_. On returning to England, Sclater sent the typical skin of _Tragelaphus gratus_ to Paris for comparison, and convinced M. Milne-Edwards of its identity with the living pair. Visiting the Jardin des Plantes again in 1881, Sclater had the pleasure of inspecting for the second time this fine pair of Antelopes, which were then accompanied by a young female, born in the previous December. Mr. Keulemans, being at that time in Paris, was employed to execute a water-colour drawing of these Antelopes, which was subsequently published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ along with further notes on the same subject. M. Milne-Edwards informed Mr. Sclater that the female of the pair had been received from the Jardin d’Acclimatation in March 1876, and the male in November 1879, and that both were believed to have come from Gaboon. The female had brought forth her young one on December 4th, 1880, after a period of gestation of 7 months and 24 days. A young male had likewise been born of the same mother in December 1881, but had not lived long.

Besides those of Paris, several other Gardens in continental Europe have of late years obtained specimens of _Limnotragus gratus_, which, singularly enough, when we consider its habits in a state of nature, appears to thrive in captivity and to breed with facility. There are at present small herds of this species in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg and Amsterdam. Dr. Kerbert, the Director of the last-named Garden, has kindly sent us for this work a list of the nine individuals bred in that establishment from 1891 to 1896, which is here subjoined:—

Female covered. Young born. Sex. Period of gestation.
----------------------------------------------------------
days.
1. 18.4.91 26.12.91 ♂ 252
2. 31.7.91 28.3.92 ♂ 240
3. 26.5.92 5.2.93 ♀ 255
4. 3.7.92 17.3.93 ♂ 257
5. 21.6.93 4.3.94 ♂ 256
6. 22.6.93 7.3.94 ♂ 258
7. 9.7.94 15.3.95 ♂ 249
8. 30.8.94 6.5.95 ♀ 249
9. 25.5.95 24.1.96 ♀ 245

Dr. Kerbert observes that the colour of the young males and females when born is exactly like that of the mother, but that the sexes are easily distinguishable by the white hairs in the middle of the black stripe over the back in the males.

The Zoological Society of London have not as yet been so successful in the treatment of this Antelope. They received their first female in 1885, but lost it. A male purchased in 1894 bred with the female _L. selousi_, as already mentioned, and produced two hybrids. A young female bred at Amsterdam, and received in September 1898, was lost shortly after its arrival.

In our illustration of this species (Plate XCV.) the male has been drawn by Mr. Smit from the adult specimen above mentioned, now in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. The female, in the background, was drawn from the typical skin (now in the British Museum) upon which Sclater founded the species in 1880.

The National Collection likewise contains a skin of an adult male (with horns) of this Antelope, obtained by Mr. du Chaillu in Gaboon, and a stuffed adult male from the same country obtained by purchase. From this last specimen the drawing of the head (fig. 113, p. 169) was taken by Mr. Smit in 1883. It has been kindly lent us for this work by the Zoological Society of London.

_April_, 1900.

Genus IV. STREPSICEROS.

Type.
_Strepsiceros_, Hamilton Smith, Griff. An. K. v.
p. 365 (1827) S. capensis.

_Calliope_, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138 S. capensis.

Large-sized Antelopes resembling _Tragelaphus_ and _Limnotragus_ in that the horns are spirally twisted and present only in the male; but differing from these two genera in that the horns are rounded behind at the base, with a scarcely appreciable external ridge, and form from two and a half to three complete turns with a more open spiral curvature. Further differing from _Limnotragus_, but resembling _Tragelaphus_, in the structure of the feet, which are adapted for progression on hard ground. Tail thickly hairy at the sides as in _Limnotragus_ and in most of the species of _Tragelaphus_.

_Range of the Genus._ Eastern and Southern Africa from Abyssinia
and Somaliland to Cape Colony, extending in Western Africa as far
north as the Congo region.

The two known species of this genus may be recognized as follows:—

_a._ Height of adult male about four feet or over; horns
with a bold and open spiral curvature and strongly diverging
from the base; a mane of hairs running along throat in male;
no white patches on the throat in either sex, and transverse
body-stripes varying from four to ten. 130. _S. capensis._

_b._ Height of adult male only a little over three feet;
horns with much less open curve and but little diverging from
base; no throat-mane in the male; two white throat-patches in
both sexes, and transverse body-stripes almost always more than
twelve 131. _S. imberbis._

130. THE GREATER KUDU.

STREPSICEROS CAPENSIS (A. Smith).

[PLATE XCVI.]

_Le Condoma_, =Buffon=, Hist. Nat. xii. p. 301, pl. xxxix.
fig. 1 (1764).

_Le Condoma ou Coësdoës_, =Allamand=, in Schneider’s ed. Buffon,
Suppl. vol. iv. p. 143 (1781); =Buff.= Hist. Nat., Suppl. vi. p.
124, pl. xiii. (1782).

_Antilope strepsiceros_, =Pallas=, Misc. Zool. p. 9 (1766); id. Spic.
Zool. i. p. 17 (1767), xii. pp. 19, 69 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A.
p. 282 (1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 542 (1777); id. Geogr.
Ges. ii. p. 115 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool. pt. i. p. 81 (1780);
=Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxvii. (1784); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 142
(1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 192 (1788); =Penn.= Quadr. i. p.
77 (1781), p. 88, pl. xiv. (1793); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 319
(1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beitr. i. p. 643 (1792); =Link=, Beytr. Nat.
ii. p. 99 (1795); =G. Cuv.= Tabl. Elém. p. 164 (1798); =Shaw=, Gen.
Zool. pt. 2, p. 334, fig. 185 (upper) (1801); =Turt.= Linn. Syst.
Nat. i. p. 116 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. vi. p. 129
(1803); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 246 (1804); =Tiedemann=,
Zool. i. p. 410 (1808); =Thunb. Mém.= Ac. St. Pétersb. iii. p. 317
(1811); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 439 (1814); =Afz.= N. Acta Upsal.
vii. p. 220 (1815); =G. Cuv.= R. A. i. p. 263 (1817); =Burchell=,
List Quadr. p. 7 (1817); =Goldf.= Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1207 (1818);
=Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 396 (1821); =Burchell=, Travels, i. pp.
337, 374 (1822); =Desmoul.= Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 447 (1822);
=G. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 471 (1829); =Rüpp.= Neue Wirbelth.
Abyss. p. 26 (1835–40); =Masson=, Cuv. R. A. i. p. 317 (1836);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838); =Forst.= (J. R.) Descr.
Anim. pp. 36, 377 (1844); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 430 (1845);
id. Mon. Antil. p. 28, pl. xxxi. (1848); =Drummond=, Large Game, p.
425 (1875).

_Antilope (Gazella) strepsiceros_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund, vi. p.
172 (1814).

_Capra strepsiceros_, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 100 (1789); Engl. Tr. ii.
p. 89 (1793).

_Ovis strepsiceros_, =Müller=, Linn. Natursyst. i. p. 429, pl. xxvi.
figs. 1 & 2 (1773).

_Cerophorus (Tragelaphus) strepsiceros_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.

_Antilope (Tragelaphus) strepsiceros_, =Desm.= Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii.
p. 197 (1816); id. Mamm. ii. p. 468 (1822); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p.
383 (1827); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 266 (1840); =Less.=
N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842); =Wagn.= Schreb. Säug., Suppl.
iv. p. 445 (1844), v. p. 440 (1855); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 311 (1853).

_Tragelaphus strepsiceros_, =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869);
id. Säug. Reise Nordost-Afr. p. 113, fig. (1877).

_Antilope_ (_Addax_) _strepsiceros_, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i.
p. 620 (1861).

_Damalis strepsiceros_, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 359 (1827).

_Damalis_ (_Strepsiceros_) _strepsiceros_, =H. Sm.= op. cit. v. p. 365
(1827).

_Calliope strepsiceros_, =Ogilby=, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138; =Rüpp.=
Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 181 (1839).

_Strepsiceros strepsiceros_, =Smuts=, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 92 (1832);
=Peters=, Reise Mossam. p. 190 (1852); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); id. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173
(1887) (Mossamedes); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.)
p. 172 (1892); =Rendall & Rothschild=, Novitat. Zool. v. p. 212
(1898); =Matschie=, in Werther’s Die mittl. Hochl. Deutsch-Ost-Afr.
p. 254, fig. 27 (1898); =De Winton=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 768.

_Antilope strepsiceros_, =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 303 (1836);
=Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 145 (1845).

_Strepsiceros strepsiceros zambesiensis_, =Lorenz=, Ann. Mus. Wien,
ix., Notizen, p. 62 (1894).

_Strepsiceros capensis_, =A. Sm. S. Afr.= Quart. J. ii. p. 223 (1834);
=Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. pp. 103–107, pl. xx. (1840).

_Strepsiceros kudu_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 155 (1843); id. Cat.
Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 143; id. Knowsley
Menag. p. 26, pl. xxiv. fig. 2 (1850); =Jard.= Nat. Libr. xxii.,
Mamm. p. 180, pl. xx. (1850) (Koodoo); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.
(2) viii. p. 225 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 133, pl. xvii. figs.
1, 2 (1852); =Gerv.= Hist. Nat. Mamm. ii. p. 200 (1855) (Coudou);
=Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 245 (1862); =Wood=, Ill. Nat.
Hist. i. p. 663, fig. (1862); =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 105;
=Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659; =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p.
176 (1869); =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss, p. 270 (1870); =Gray=, Cat. Rum.
B. M. p. 46 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 117 (1873); =Buckley=, P. Z.
S. 1872, p. 454, 1876, pp. 284, 291; =Garrod=, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 4
(anatomy); =Bocage=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 745 (Angola); =Brehm=,
Thierl. iii. p. 227, fig. (1880); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 751;
id. Hunter’s Wand. p. 207 (1881); =Scl.= List An. Z. S. p. 136
(1883), p. 160, fig. 23 (1896); id. P. Z. S. 1884, p. 47, fig. 2
(horns) (nec fig. 1); =Johnston=, River Congo, pp. 386, 391 (1884);
id. P. Z. S. 1884, p. 542; =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p.
258 (1884); =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; =Hunter=, in
Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 287 (1889); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo,
pp. 291, 292 (1889); =Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 659; =Jent.= Mus.
Pays-Bas, xii. p. 211 (1890); =Scl.= fil. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. p.
153 (1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 348 (1891); =Inverarity=, Journ.
Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. vi. no. 4, p. 463, pl. (1891); =Nicolls &
Eglin.= Sportsm. in S. Afr. p. 52 (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 159
(1892), p. 203 (1896); =Lugard=, Rise of E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 531
(1893); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892,
p. 301; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 256 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat.
Hist. ii. p. 273, pl. (1894); =Jackson=, Big Game Shooting (Badm.
Libr.), pp. 288, 304 (1894); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145;
=Matschie=, Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 136 (1895); =Swayne=,
Somaliland, p. 302, fig. facing p. 144 (1895); =Thos.= P. Z. S.
1896, p. 798; =Elliot=, Publ. Mus. Chicago, Zool. i. p. 132;
=Bryden=, Nat. & Sportsm. in S. Afr. pp. 241–250 (1897); =Pousarg.=
Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); =Jackson=, P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454;
=Ghika=, Pays des Somalis, p. 181 (1898); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. ii.
pt. 4, p. 960 (1898); =Lydekker, Selous, Buckley, & Inverarity=, in
Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, pp. 440–451, pl. xiii. fig. 1
(1899).

_Damalis_ (_Strepsiceros_) _capensis_, =A. Sm.= Illust. Zool. S. Afr.
pls. xlii., xliii. (1859).

_Antilope tendal_, =Cretzschm.= Atl. Rüpp. Reise, Säug. p. 22 (1826);
=J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).

_Antilope chora_, =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).

_Strepsiceros kudu abyssinicus_, =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p.
176 (1869).

_Strepsiceros excelsus_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. lxv. p.
196 (1846); =id.= Hornsch. Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 147;
Reprint, p. 71 (1848).

?? _Antilope torticornis_, =Herm.= Obs. Zool. i. p. 87[12].

_Cerf du Cap de Bonne-Espérance_, =Colini=, Acta Acad. Theod. Palat.
pp. 487–491, pl. (1766).

_Striped Antelope_, =Penn.= Syn. Quadr. pp. 31, 224 (1771); =id.=
Hist. of Quadr. (1) i, p. 76, (3) i. p. 88, pl. xiv.

_Koedoe_, =Sparrm.= Reise, p. 511 (1784); Engl. Tr. ii. p. 213 (1786);
French Tr. p. 237 (1787).

_Le Condoma_, =Huet=, Coll. Mamm. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. p. 47, pl. xli.
fig. 1 (1808).

_The Koodoo_, =Daniell=, Afr. Scenery, no. 6 (1812); =Baldwin=, Afr.
Hunting, p. 376 (1863); =Johnston=, Kilima-Njaro Exped. pp. 301, 354
(and of most English sportsmen and naturalists).

Vernacular Names:—_Koedoe_ of the Dutch, and _Kudu_ or _Koodoo_ of the
English Colonists at the Cape; _Tolo_ of Bechuana; _Ee-bala-bala_ of
Amandables; _Ee-zilarwa_ of Makalakas; _Noro_ of Mashunas; _Unza_ of
Masubias; _Unzwa_ of Makubas; _Muzeelona_ of Batongas; _Dwar_ of
Masuras (_Selous_). _Unganxa_ of Kaffirs (_Drummond_). _Mivimveh_,
_Njellet_, _Neled_, and _Jelled_ of the Arabs of the Upper Nile;
_Garna_ or _Qarna_ and _Nellet_ at Massaua; _Ungŭtir_ of Hamran
Arabs; _Agasehn_, _A’gasen_, and _Agasen_ in Amharic (_Heuglin_).
_Goder_ and _Gouriali_ in Somaliland (_Swayne_).

_Adult male._ Height at withers about 50–52 inches. General colour of body varying from reddish to pale slaty bluish grey, the latter especially prevalent in older animals, and perhaps due, in part, to the scantiness of the hair revealing the tint of the skin. Neck brown on each side at its base and darker than the shoulders, becoming paler towards its anterior extremity. Head darker fawn than the anterior end of the neck, whitish around the eye, a white bar running inwards from the corner of each eye and forming an incomplete v-shaped mark on the nose; two or three white cheek-spots; edge of the upper lip and chin white, the white of the chin extending back on to the fore part of the inter-ramal area. From the middle of this area back to the hinder end of the throat extends a thickish mane of white and blackish-brown hairs; no white patches on the throat. There is also a dorsal mane passing from the occiput, backwards along the nape, over the withers and down the spine to the root of the tail; the mane brown on the neck and shoulders, white along the back. Sides of the body and hind-quarters marked with white stripes, which vary in number from about four in the northern forms to about nine or ten in the southern. Tail white below, black at the tip. Belly greyish, blacker in the middle. Fore legs of a rich fawn down the front, whitish at the base on inner side and behind the knee, also on the inner and posterior side of the cannon-bone, a pale blackish-brown patch above the knee on the inner side; fetlocks and pasterns also rich fawn, black behind; the white pastern-spots only just traceable. Hind leg coloured like the fore leg; inner side of the thigh at the base and anterior side down to the hock white, the white fading away between the hock and the pastern.

Horns with bold and open spiral curvature, measuring about 40 inches or more in a straight line, and an additional 12 inches or so round the curve; distance between the tips varying, irrespective of the length, from about 24 to nearly 40 inches. The skull of an adult gives the following measurements:—Basal length 15 inches, orbit to muzzle 9, greatest width 6·33.

_Female._ Generally similar to the male, but hornless and smaller and slighter; similarly marked with white, but the ground-colour of the body of a tolerably uniform fawn, becoming darker above.

_Young_ redder in colour than the adult and strongly marked with white.

_Hab._ Africa south of the Zambesi, extending on the west into
Angola, and on the east throughout East Africa up to Abyssinia,
mostly in the higher districts.

We come now to one of the largest and finest of the whole long series of African Antelopes. In Mr. John Millais’s well-known ‘Breath from the Veldt,’ drawings of the heads of the Sable Antelope and the Kudu occupy a conspicuous position on the cover. Mr. Millais, than whom there can be no better judge, although he rather gives the palm to the Sable, admits that the Kudu surpasses its rival “in elegance and general appearance” when dead, but gives the Sable preference when seen alive on the veldt. It is really a difficult question, he allows, to decide between the “two rival beauties.” But we will proceed to the history of the Kudu.

Although the Kudu was certainly known to Kolben and other visitors to the Cape in early days, Buffon was the first writer to give us a good account of it. In the twelfth volume of his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published in 1764, Buffon introduced it into his work under the title of “Le Condoma,” and gave a figure of its unmistakable horns from a pair in the possession of the Marquis de Marigny. In these horns Buffon recognized the animal previously indicated by Kolben as a “kind of large Wild Goat.” In the sixth volume of the Supplement to the ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published in 1782, Buffon entered into fuller particulars of the Kudu, which he now called the “Condoma ou Coësdoës,” apparently recognizing that the first of these names had been based on a mistake or misspelling. He was also now able to give a figure of the whole animal from a well-preserved skin received from “the interior of Africa.” Further information was added, taken from the Dutch edition of the ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ which had been then recently published by Schneider in Amsterdam, and to which Prof. Allamand had contributed a description of this animal, based on a specimen living in 1776 in the Menagerie of the Prince of Orange, to whom it had been sent by Joachim van Plattenberg, then Dutch Governor of the Cape. In his first essay on the genus _Antilope_, published in 1766, the great naturalist, Pallas, placed the Kudu sixteenth in his list, basing it mainly on the “Condoma” of Buffon, and proposed for it the specific name “_strepsiceros_.” Although, therefore, the Kudu could not have been the _Strepsiceros_ of classical authors (which was in all probability the Addax), there can be no question that the _Antilope strepsiceros_ of Pallas, as based on Buffon’s “Condoma,” is this species.

In 1827, Hamilton Smith, writing on the Mammals in Griffith’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ used the term _Strepsiceros_ as one of the subgeneric divisions of his genus _Damalis_, thus, according to the views of modern systematists, creating a new generic name, which has ever since been universally employed for the Kudu. Although many authorities are of opinion that the adoption of a specific name for the genus ought not to interfere with its usage for the species also, and consequently that the present animal ought to be called _Strepsiceros strepsiceros_, such has not been our custom in the present work, and it is consequently necessary to search out the second given specific name. For this there may be said to be two generally recognized claimants—first, “_capensis_,” bestowed upon it by Dr. Andrew Smith in 1834; and, secondly, “_kudu_,” applied to it by Gray in 1843. Of these we are inclined to adopt the former as first given, although the latter has been more generally accepted.

It is true no doubt that so long ago as 1816, in his ‘Lehrbuch der Zoologie,’ Oken introduced the Kudu into his list of the species of the genus “_Cemas_” under the heading “_C. kuhdu, Strepsiceros, Cervus capensis_.” But it does not seem to be quite certain that Oken hereby intended to bestow on the Kudu a new specific name, and under these circumstances it would be objectionable, we think, to call the Kudu, _Strepsiceros kuhdu_ (Oken). It has therefore been decided to employ Andrew Smith’s name, concerning which there can be no doubt whatever, for the present Antelope, and to designate it _Strepsiceros capensis_.

The well-known travellers Sparrman (1785), Thunberg (1795), Daniell (1804), Burchell (1822), and Steedman (1835), all met with the Kudu during their journeyings in different parts of the Cape Colony, in the more remote parts of which it was still plentiful in their days. Harris (1836–37) states that although at that period the Kudu was still found in many of the more retired portions of the Colony, he did not himself meet with it until he had entered the “prolific environs” of the Cashaan Mountains of Pretoria. Harris claims for the Kudu the “right and title to the sovereignty of _all_ the Antelopes.” Other species of this group, he allows, may be “stately, elegant, or curious,” but the Kudu is “absolutely regal.”

Harris, in the letterpress to his ‘Portraits,’ describes the habits of the Kudu in the Cashaan Mountains in the following lively manner:—

“There in the depths of solitary woods, by human foot untrod, the
noble animal occurs in such every-day abundance, that many a gory
trophy was realized; but his great sagacity, wildness, and self-
possession, demanding the most skilful generalship to out-manæuvre
him, the pursuit necessarily differs altogether from the usual
stamp of African hunting, and involves no inconsiderable
acquaintance with the subtleties of woodcraft. We have here no
dashing among countless herds, no helter-skelter riding by the
side of a closely-packed phalanx; yet have we a quarry well worth
the hardest day’s fag on foot to triumph over. Shunning both the
open plain and the society of the multitude, the crafty fellow
never ventures from his almost inaccessible fastness, unless
during the morning and evening; and even then must he be sought
_au pied_ amid the dark upland dells which usually form his
solitary abode. With all his wits about him, the lordly bull,
active and powerful, may now and then be detected browsing at grey
dawn upon some rugged hill summit, or ranging some grassy slope,
either alone, or escorted by a small troop of skittish dames, all
seeming alike his sentinels; but taking the note of alarm from the
slightest noise, he stamps his brave foot upon the ground, tosses
his spiral frontlet to the blue sky, and once fairly in motion,
never stops to look behind until he has gained the threshold of
his sanctuary. There, in some deep chasm which the sunbeam rarely
penetrates, among tangled ravines, and hollows densely clothed
with trees and brushwood, he lazily reclines during the solar
heat, beside some fern-clad stone, and leisurely turns the cud
until the cool breezes of eventide once more invite him from his
snug retreat.”

Amongst modern authorities on the Great Game-mammals of South Africa, we may select passages from the writings of Mr. Kirby and Mr. J. Millais as giving us good ideas of the present localities of the Kudu and its usual habits. In his already-mentioned ‘Breath from the Veldt,’ Mr. Millais writes as follows:—