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OSBORN LIBRARY OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY
PRESENTED "3 o ?. '-l )lj 1 '^) 1 1
LIFE- HISTORIES
OF
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
VOLUME II
1^
s
11^
} M
^
LIFE-HISTORIES «,.
OF
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
AND
EDMUND HELLER
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, AND FROM DRAWINGS
BY PHILIP R. GOODWIN; AND WITH FORTY FAUNAL MAPS
VOLUME II
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1914
Copyright, 1914, by /
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
O
Published April, 1914
;i4H
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV
PAGE
BUSHBUCKS, SiTATUNGAS, KoODOOS, BoNGOS, AND ElaNDS . . 42I
CHAPTER XVI
The Waterbucks and Reedbucks 478
CHAPTER XVII
Duikers and Small Antelopes 527
CHAPTER XVIII
The Gazelles and Their Allies 579
CHAPTER XIX
The Dikdiks 622
CHAPTER XX
The Hook-Lipped or Black Rhinoceros 635
CHAPTER XXI
White or Square-mouthed Rhinoceros 659
CHAPTER XXII
The Common Zebra or Bonte-Quagga 673
V
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXIII
The Grew Zebra 698
PAGE
CHAPTER XXIV
Elephants 709
CHAPTER XXV
Equipment, Arms, and Preservation of Specimens . . . 743
Bibliography of East Equatorial Africa . 757
Appendix 775
Index 779
ILLUSTRATIONS
The giant eland Frontispiece
Photogravure from a drmving by Philip R. Goodwin.
FACING PAGE
The greater and the lesser koodoo 444
Bongo and eland from East Africa 454
The South and East African races of the eland 470
Reedbuck 484
Waterbuck, kob, and lechwi 492
Mounted specimens of the Nile lechwi 518
Nile lechwi 522
From a drawing by Philip R. Goodwin.
Duikers 54^
Bushbuck and small antelopes 566
Grant and Thomson gazelles 582
Gazelles and impalla 590
Gerenuk from Somaliland 610
Herd of impalla antelope on the banks of the Tana River near Fort Hall,
B. E. A 616
Black rhinoceros tossing a porter, Northern Guaso Nyiro district . . . 648
From a drawing by Philip R. Goodwin.
Living specimens of African rhinoceroses 654
The Black and the White Nile African rhinoceroses 664
Showing variations in dorsal color patterns of highland quagga zebra . . 688
Living specimens of highland quagga and Grevy zebras 700
vii
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
A Nile group. White rhinoceros, elephant, hippopotamus, kob, water-
buck, and hartebeest 710
Fro7n a drawing by Philip R. Goodwin.
The Abyssinian and West African races of the elephant 716
The elephant herds in the Lado Enclave were often accompanied by flocks
of white cow-herons 720
From a drawing by Philip R. Goodwin.
African elephant herd 732
East African elephants from Mt. Kenia and the Uasin Gishu Plateau . 736
East African elephants 740
MAPS
MAP PAGE
12. Distribution of the races of the bushbuck 439
13. Distribution of the species and races of sitatungas 443
14. Distribution of the East African race of the lesser koodoo .... 447
15. Distribution of the East African race of the greater koodoo . . . 451
16. Distribution of the races of the bongo 457
17. Distribution of the races of the giant eland 465
18. Distribution of the East African race of the eland 475
19. Distribution of the East African race of the rock reedbuck . . . 481
20. Distribution of the races of the reedbuck 489
21. Distribution of the races of the Defassa waterbuck 501
22. Distribution of the races of the common waterbuck 507
23. Distribution of the races of the kob 517
24. Distribution of the species of lechwis 525
25. Distribution of the races of the bush duiker 545
26. Distribution of the races of the pygmy antelope 553
27. Distribution of the races of the oribi 563
28. Distribution of the East African race of the steinbok 569
29. Distribution of the races of the klipspringer 577
30. Distribution of the races of Grant and Peters gazelles 597
31. Distribution of the races of the Thomson gazelle 607
32. Distribution of the gerenuk 613
33. Distribution of the East African race of the impalla 619
34. Distribution of the East African race of long-snouted dikdik . . . 625
MAPS
MAP PAGE
35-
36
37
38
39
40
Distribution of the races of the Kirk dikdik 633
Distribution of the races of the black rhinoceros 657
Distribution of the races of the white rhinoceros 671
Distribution of the races of the quagga zebra 695
Distribution of the Grevy zebra 707
Distribution of the races of the African elephant ....... 739
*,* The numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., on the maps mark the exact spots where specimens have been collected or
observed by reputable sportsmen, and the lines limiting the distribution are drawn around these numerab so
as to map the approximate area occupied by the race to which the numeral refers.
Q Represents type locality or exact spot from which the type or original specimen came.
LIFE-HISTORIES
OF
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
CHAPTER XV
BUSHBUCKS, SITATUNGAS, KOODOOS, BONGOS,
AND ELANDS
Subfamily Tragelaphinee
The tragelaphine antelopes of Africa form a compact
natural group, comprising the bushbucks, sitatungas, koo-
doos, bongos, and elands. They are best defined by their
spirally twisted horns, but they also show a singularly close
agreement in the color pattern of the head and body. The
white transverse body stripes, which are found in all the
genera to a greater or less degree, are characteristic of the
subfamily. Other white markings which are common to
the whole group are the two white spots on the cheeks, the
white lips and chin, the white spots above the hoof on the
front of the pasterns, the white bars on the inside of the
limbs at the axillae and the groins, and the white inner sur-
face of the ears. Some other markings which are almost
universal are the white patches on the upper throat and on
the chest and the white stripe down the inside of the legs.
The group has an immense range in size almost equal to that
of the family Bovida ranging as it does from the small har-
nessed bushbuck to the immense bulk of the elands, the
largest of all antelope. The withers are distinctly low in
some members, being less in height than the hips. The
snout is rather short and without a lachrymal gland. The
ears are large and broad owing to the bush-haunting habits
421
422 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of most of the members; narrow in only one species, the
common eland. The tail varies greatly from the short,
bushy tail of the bushbuck to the long, tufted tail of the
eland. The skull has long nasal bones, short snout and short
nasal cavity, and no lachrymal vacuity in front of the orbit.
A large sinus is present between the nasal and lachrymal
glands as in the waterbucks.
The effort to divide this family into genera and species
is fraught with difficulties that illustrate clearly how arti-
ficial the terms *'genus," and "species" are. It is absolutely
necessary to employ the terms and in some cases they meet
all the needs of the situation, but in other cases, as with the
tragelaphs, all that can be said is that they are necessary
but that they are also unsatisfactory.
Nearly all the species of the TragelaphincB are so closely
allied that they might all be included in a single genus.
Such an arrangement would, however, result in consider-
able geographical confusion and obscure the real relation-
ships of the species. Nevertheless, the attempt to make the
genera of equal weight so as to express the relationships
clearly, or avoid confusion, results in a multiplicity of
genera; and this means splitting into groups a number of
closely allied species. In fact, arguments of some weight
can be advanced for either uniting all the tragelaphs into
one genus, or for making almost as many genera as there are
species; and in this same way arguments can be advanced
for both splitting up into a large number of species, and
for reducing the great majority of these from specific to
subspecific rank. The genera adopted by most writers
are based almost solely upon horn characters. As a single
character, the shape of the horns is certainly the most re-
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 423
liable guide to the natural affinities of the various species.
A careful study of the skulls, however, reveals some impor-
tant differences between species which have hitherto been
combined in the same genus on account of horn resemblances
solely. The genus of the koodoos, Strepsiceros, is an in-
stance of this sort. The lesser koodoo, Strepsiceros im-
berbis, is without doubt as closely allied to the bushbuck,
Tragelaphus, as to the greater koodoo, as regards its skull
characters and pattern of coloration. It is a geographical
associate of both genera and deserves recognition as a
separate genus in order to emphasize its true relationships.
The nyala, Tragelaphus angasi, is another species which
also must be accorded generic rank. Here, however, we
have to do with a species showing almost identical horn
characters with Tragelaphus, but differing distinctly in
skull characters, pattern of coloration, and habits.
The tragelaphine antelopes range over Africa south of
the Sahara, from the northern limits of the Abyssinian high-
lands and adjacent Red Sea coast south to the Cape. They
are universally distributed throughout plains, forests, and
swamps from sea-level to timber-line or the limits of forest
growth. Geologically the subfamily is known as far back as
the Miocene. Most of the fossil species are Eurasian and
North African. Recently twisted horn-cores resembling
those of the koodoo have been found by Merriam in the
Pliocene of Nevada, but such forms were doubtful members
of the tragelaphine group. Within the present year Gidley
has described from a series of teeth from Pleistocene cave
deposits in Maryland an American species of eland. It is,
however, far from proven that the animal towhich these teeth
belonged was an eland or a member of the Tragelaphince,
<-
424 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
which is an association founded upon horn and skull
characters and not known to possess distinctive dental
characters of much weight. It is highly improbable that
the eland, if it did exist in America, lingered as late as the
Pleistocene. Gidley's specimen doubtless represents a genus
allied to the eland but peculiar to America.
Key to the Genera
Only males bearing horns
Horns curved in a narrow spiral, triangular in cross-section and . jt/^
seldom exceeding the head greatly in length '
Hoofs normal; tail bushy; ears larger Tragelaphus
Hoofs greatly lengthened; tail tufted; ears smaller ^ \-p
Limnotragus '
Horns curved in a wide open spiral, circular in cross-section,
greatly exceeding the head in length
Male with a long throat mane; throat uniform in color
Strepsiceros
Male without throat mane; a white patch on forethroat and
another on chest Ammelaphus
Both sexes horned
Horns curved in an open spiral, broadly elliptical in cross-section
and flattened, without a keel; coloration rufous
Boocercus
Horns closely spiral, circular in cross-section and furnished with
a prominent, rounded keel; coloration grayish or ful-
vous Taurotragus
BUSHBUCKS
Tragelaphus
Tragelaphus De Blainville, l8i6, Bull. Soc. Philom., p. 75; type T. sylvaticus
of South Africa.
The bushbucks are medium-sized antelopes in which
the males are armed with short, spiral horns, the females
being hornless. The horns seldom exceed the head much in
length and are furnished with a wide keel which gives them
^
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 425
their characteristic triangular flattened shape. The spiral
is very close and consists usually of but a single complete
turn. The withers are low, and do not exceed the height
of the hips. The tail is short and very bushy, as in the
American white-tailed deer. The ears are large and ex-
panded. The snout is rather short and without a lachrymal
gland in front of the eye. The hoofs are normal in shape.
The color pattern is very diverse, ranging from races marked
with both transverse and longitudinal white stripes like the
harnessed antelope of West Africa to uniformly colored
races like me7ieliki of Abyssinia. In the eastern races great
sexual differences in color prevail, the old males being sooty-
brown or black, and the females bright rufous-red. Certain
of the white markings are common to all of the races.
Such are the white chin, lips, and upper throat areas, the
white bar across the lower throat, the two white spots on
the cheeks, the white bar on the inside of the thigh of the
foreleg, the white patch at the axilla, and the two white
spots immediately above the hoofs. White chevrons on the
nose are often present, but they show great individual
variation and are of no value as a color character. The
bushbucks may be split into two natural groups occupying
different geographical areas. The Congo, West African, and
the upper Nile regions support the fully striped races in
which the sexes are alike in coloration, while eastern Africa,
from Abyssinia to the Cape, is inhabited by the races
showing great sexual differences in body color and a great
reduction in the amount of white striping or spotting in
the coat. A collar of short hair is usually present at the
base of the neck, formed by an area two or three inches wide
of short hair having the appearance of having been rubbed.
It is best marked and widest on the nape. The occurrence
of this collar has been used by some naturalists to divide
the bushbucks into two groups, but the result is unsatis-
factory and artificial. Several of the races show much in-
dividual variation concerning its presence or absence, so
that it cannot be relied upon as even a racial character.
The only bushbucks which consistently lack the collar are
the two highland forms inhabiting Abyssinia, and these
mark the extreme northern extension of the genus in Africa.
The bushbucks parallel closely the American deer in
426 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
habits. Their haunts are forests or dense bush upon which
they browse, and where they lead a sohtary Hfe. Like most
of the deer they are very local and seldom range over an
area of more than a few miles. In external appearance the
resemblance in body and shape of head, ears, and tail is
singularly close. The genus comprises a single species which
splits up into numerous geographical races. Nowhere, how-
ever, are two races found occupying the same territory.
The nyala, a large, transversely striped antelope, bearing in
the male a long throat mane similar to that of the greater
koodoo, is usually considered a member of this genus; but,
owing to its differences in coloration and other structural
differences, it has been distinguished as a genus, Nyala.
Tragelaphus ranges throughout the whole of Ethiopia from
the Cape northward to the southern edge of the Sahara
Desert and the northern limits of Abyssinia. The altitudi-
nal range covers a wide area from sea-level to 9,000 feet.
The only fossil species assigned to the genus is one from
the Miocene of Germany, but it is of very doubtful identity
with the bushbucks of Africa.
The Bushbuck
Tragelaphus scriptus
The bushbucks range from the Abyssinian highlands and
the adjacent Red Sea coast westward along the southern
border of the Sahara Desert to Senegal, and south through-
out the whole continent to the Cape. They are absent only
from the open plains, waterless deserts, and from altitudes
above 10,000 feet.
Owing to the great geographical variation in color and
the marked sexual color differences in some races, the species
is difficult of definition. The forms which we now call races
were nearly all described as species, owing to this great
variation and the lack of specimens showing intermediate
characters.
Scriptus may be described as a bushbuck having a large
white patch on the lower throat, another on the upper
throat, two white spots on the cheeks below the eye, white
lips, chin, and gular region, a white band at the axilla and
the groin, a white stripe down the inside of the legs to the
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 427
fetlocks, and two white spots above the hoofs in front of
the pasterns. These white markings are always present.
The body color ranges in shade from a bright tawny in
females to a dark seal-brown in the males of some races,
and in color pattern from ten white transverse stripes and
one longitudinal one through every degree of spotting
within the limits of these lines to races which are quite
monocolored. The male in all races has a blackish breast
and belly, or rather this area is always darker than the
sides of the body, and the midline of the back is marked by
a low mane of longer hair. The female lacks the dorsal
mane and the darker coloration of the breast and belly.
The young of the various races resemble closely their female
parent in color, and the various races can be distinguished
quite as readily at birth as can the adult female. The
darker coloration of the male is gradually assumed during
youth. The male is distinctly larger than the female.
We found the bushbuck common in different forms,
from East Africa through Uganda to the Lado. We found
it in the high, wet, cold mountains, in the hot, dry, low
country, and in the wet, low country. Everywhere it
avoided the open and lived in the timber or brush. But it
showed a degree of adaptability to changing conditions,
such as, for instance, the roan and waterbuck also show,
but which other species, like the topi and oryx, do not show.
In the Lado the bushbuck — here a form of harnessed bush-
buck — lived in the rather thin, rather scanty patches of
thorn scrub with which the dry country was dotted. They
were always within such distance of water that they could
drink at least once in the twenty-four hours. But except
when drinking they were as apt to be found miles from
water as in its vicinity, and we saw them feeding in the im-
mediate neighborhood of hartebeest, kob, and waterbuck,
all in the same type of country. In East Africa and Uganda
428 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
we never saw bushbuck in such country or in the neigh-
borhood of such companions. In Uganda the bushbuck —
another form of harnessed bushbuck — hved in wet, marshy
ground, often where the water stood some inches deep
among the tall grass and bushes. In much of East Africa
we found the bushbuck — much less striped and spotted,
and some of the males very dark-colored — living in thick
forest, in the hills and broken country, where there were
streams in the gullies and valleys, but where the forests
themselves were dry; and there bushbuck were never seen
in the open or on the feeding-grounds of the hartebeests
or kob. In the Uasin Gishu the bushbuck were found in
the belt of heavy timber along the river, and also in big
reed beds, in places where reedbuck were also found; else-
where we found them in the haunts of the duiker and im-
palla.
Bushbuck are solitary creatures. A buck and doe, or a
doe and fawn, may be together, but generally we found them
singly. As with other antelopes their times for feeding and
drinking vary; in the Lado we came on them feeding in the
bright daylight. But in East Africa they usually laid up
during the day, and began to move about toward dusk.
They trust for safety to skulking and hiding in the thick
cover, and it is not easy to shoot them. They are rather
noisy, and utter a deep bark when alarmed or disturbed;
they sometimes utter this bark when they hear or smell a
man or leopard. The leopard is their chief foe, as it lives in
the same localities. Doubtless the lion kills them if it hap-
pens to get a chance, but it is not sufficiently adroit to take
them while in cover. The bushbuck evidently know this,
and have no fear whatever of the lions in the thick brush and
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 429
forest. In one place, by a stream, among the twisted, close-
growing stems of big and little trees, in which lions habitu-
ally made their beds, and evidently passed much of their
time, we also roused a bushbuck out of its bed. This bush-
buck had used this bed for some days, and it was within
twenty paces of a trail along which the lions had been con-
tinually passing and repassing. Evidently the buck, as a
finished diver and skulker in thick bush, able to dodge at full
speed through the most tangled cover, felt entirely safe
from any rush or spring of his huge and formidable neigh-
bors. Bushbucks are browsers, but sometimes eat grass
also. In the Lado they were feeding on leaves, twig tops,
and pods of the yellow-barked acacia. In the Uasin Gishu
they were feeding on leaves, wild olives, and a little grass.
The buck is much larger than the doe, and is by far the most
truculent of all the lesser antelopes; indeed for its size it is
probably the most formidable fighter among all the ante-
lopes, and its horns are very effective weapons. It will,
when wounded, charge a man, and has even been known to
kill one, as recorded by Drummond; it has also been known
to kill both the leopard and the wild dog — Drummond re-
cording the former feat, and Stevenson-Hamilton the latter.
On one occasion, when we were beating a reed bed, a doe
rushed back through the line of beaters, and fairly charged
one beater, knocking him over with her rush. It is a very
curious thing that among the tragelaphs it should be the
little bushbuck which is so fierce, while the larger members
of the subfamily, the eland and even the koodoo, are mild
and gentle animals by comparison.
430 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Key to Adult Males of the Races of scriptus
Neck without a collar of short hair
No stripes or bands on body meneliki
Sides marked by two longitudinal stripes decula
Neck with a collar of short hair
No stripes or bands on body
Body color dark, chestnut or seal-brown
Hind quarters marked with two or three white spots
delamerei
Hind quarters with many white spots massaicus
Body color light, ochraceous or tawny
Dorsal mane white dama
Dorsal mane black
Collar of short hair well marked multicolor
Collar of short hair indistinct nigrinotatus
Body color olive-gray, without reddish suffusion olivaceus
Body crossed by transverse bands and one longitudinal stripe
bar
Highland Bushbuck
Tragelaphus scriptus delamerei
Native Names: Kikuyu, szvalika; Kikamba, ndwayia.
Tragelaphus delamerei Pocock, 1900, Ann. i^ Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 95.
Range. — From the highlands south and east of Lake
Rudolf southward through the highlands of British East
Africa to the southern coast of the Victoria Nyanza.
The bushbuck named for Lord Delamere by Pocock, in
1900, was assigned to Sayer, Somahland, erroneously, and
has remained unrecognizable, partly owing to this confusion
of locahty, and partly to the immaturity and faded condi-
tion of the type specimen. Sayer is, however, in British
East Africa. It is situated at the southern edge of the Lo-
rogi Mountains, on the northeastern limits of the Laikipia
Plateau, at an altitude of four thousand four hundred feet,
and is on one of the old trade routes to Mount Marsabit
and Lake Rudolf. A few years later Thomas described the
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 431
adult male of the same race as haywoodi from a specimen
taken at Nyeri, which is situated almost within the same
watershed, but one hundred miles south of Sayer. Still
more recently a specimen from Nakuru has been made the
type of a new race, tjaderi, by Doctor J. A. Allen.
The highland bushbuck is distinguishable by the dark
seal-brown color of the old male, and the almost total ab-
sence of white markings on the sides. The hind quarters
usually show two or three spots, but occasionally they are
absolutely wanting. The adult female is tawny rufous.
The color of an old male is uniform raw umber-brown
on the dorsal surface, but lighter on the rump, where there
is some mixture with tawny hairs, and darker on the sides and
breast, where the color becomes blackish seal-brown. The
midline of the back is marked with a mane of long, white-
tipped hair. On the sides are a faint indication of two
transverse white stripes and two or three white spots on the
flanks also. The tail is bushy; the dorsal surface and sides
are rufous like the rump, the under-surface white, and the
tip black. The legs are deep seal-brown like the belly, but
are white on the inside of the axillae and at the groins. The
inside of the forelegs from knees to pasterns and a similar
stripe on hind legs from the hocks are tawny-ochraceous.
The front of the pasterns is marked with a pair of large
white spots. The neck is encircled by a well-marked collar of
short hair at the base, which is bone-brown in color. The
fore part of the neck is tawny with a short, black mane on
the nape. There is a white bar at the base of the throat and
a rectangular one on the forethroat. The crown and fore-
head are bright-rufous, the snout umber-brown on top, and
the sides of the face ochraceous-tawny. Below the eye on
the cheek are two rounded white spots. The lips, chin, and
upper throat are white. The ears are ochraceous-tawny on
the back, with umber-brown tips and white inside.
Immature males at an age when the horns are two or
three inches long are like the adult females in color, but the
collar at the base of the neck is darker and the indications
of transverse stripes more pronounced. Males with horns
half grown are less reddish than the females and quite uni-
form wood-brown in color. The old adult female has the
body bright russet on the midline of the back, and grades
432 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
on the sides gradually into bright- tawny. The legs are
marked as in the male, but the upper part is much lighter-
tawny instead of seal-brown. The head is colored quite as in
the male; the neck, however, is lighter tawny like the body.
The median dorsal line lacks the mane found in the male,
which is indicated only by a dark stripe with occasional
streaks of white hair. There is no indication on the sides of
spots or transverse bands. Younger females show a row of
white spots on the sides and indications of one or two trans-
verse white stripes. Newly born young are like the young
females in color and pattern, but lack the dark leg stripes,
and have the head colored as in the adult. The collar is in-
dicated by the dark-brown color of the hair on the nape,
which is no shorter than on the rest of the neck. It is sur-
prising how slight the color differences are between the
nursing young and the adult female in a group showing such
great sexual color difference in the adults. The absence of
any indication in the young of the remote ancestral color-
ation would indicate great age in the present color pattern.
The type specimen collected at Sayer by Lord Delamere
is an immature female with the milk teeth and first molar
only in use, and has every appearance, as far as the skull is
concerned, of being a kid six months old. The skin is in a
faded condition and apparently lacks the white areas on the
inside of the legs. It is matched closely in color by some
skins of adult females from the Aberdare Mountains which
show the same wood-brown color and absence of all spots on
the sides and hind quarters. The collar of short hair on the
neck is not always well marked in adults and is occasionally
lacking, as is the case in the type of haywoodi which was one
of the distinguishing characters used by Thomas for the
race. The amount of white spotting on the sides is quite
variable and is sometimes absent, as in the type specimens
of both delamerei and tjaderi. The white chevrons on the
snout are also subject to great individual variation in con-
stancy, and their presence is of no racial value as a char-
acter. A large number of specimens have been examined
from the Aberdare Mountains, Lake Naivasha, the Loita
Plains, and the Uasin Gishu Plateau. This race is very sim-
ilar in color to sylvaticus of the Zambesi region, the differ-
ence being much less than in the Uganda bushbuck, with
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 433
which it is closely associated geographically. Differences in
coloration in bushbucks are a meridian affair with but slight
latitudinal change.
The flesh measurements of an adult male are: head and
body along curve of back, 53 inches; tail, 8 inches; hind foot,
14^ inches; ear, ^H inches. The female is somewhat
smaller in size and measures in length, 50 inches; tail, 7^
inches; hind foot, 14 inches; ear, 5>? inches. The skull of a
large male measures io>^ inches in greatest length. An
adult female skull usually measures 83^ inches. The long-
est horns in six males are 16 inches, measured on the curve
of the keel. Average horns are somewhat less than the head
in length and are approximately 10 inches long. Ward's
record for this race is 18^ inches.
Masai Bushbuck
Tragelaphus scriptus massaicus
Native Names: Kinyamwesi, pongo; Masai, el mungu.
Tragelaphus massaicus Neumann, 1902, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freunde, Berl.,
p. 96.
The Masai bushbuck was described by Herr Oscar Neu-
mann from a specimen shot near Irangi, German East
Africa, in the Rift Valley south of Mount Kilimanjaro.
From the slopes of Mount Meru situated southwest of Kili-
manjaro and some distance north of Irangi, Lonnberg later
described a race, meruensis, which is quite indistinguishable.
His male specimens were more fully adult and showed
darker coloration than the immature one described by Neu-
mann, which accounts for the differences he discovered. The
absence of the white chevrons given as a character is of no
racial value, owing to the great individual variation in con-
stancy to which they are subject.
The Masai bushbuck may be distinguished from dela-
merei by its lighter body color in the male, and by the
presence of three or four transverse white body stripes, and
by the greater number of white spots on the hind quarters,
which are present in both sexes.
434 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
SWAHILI BUSHBUCK
Tragelaphus scriptus olivaceus
Native Names: Swahili, kungu; Taita, sariga.
Tragelaphus scriptus olivaceus Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No.
13. P- I-
Range. — Eastern edge of Taru Desert from the German
boundary of British East Africa north throughout the coast
district as far as Lamu at least; Hmits of range unknown.
The SwahiU race has been recently described from speci-
mens secured at Maji-ya-Chumvi Station on the western
edge of the moist tropical belt flanking the coast. A
mounted specimen from Lamu in the British Museum rep-
resents the northern limits of the range of the race. The
dorsal coloration of the male is grayish-olive without any
rufous suffusion. The sides and hind quarters are marked
by white spots and the legs are seal-brown. The neck is
short-haired, but without evident collar, and the dorsal
mane is white. The female is cinnamon and has the sides of
the body crossed by six to eight white cross-bars. There
are white spots on the lower sides and on the hind quarters.
From both the highland and the Masai bushbuck the
Swahili race may be distinguished by the absence of any
rufous in the coat of the male and the presence of a line of
white spots on the sides of the body. The female is dis-
tinguishable by the greater number of transverse white
stripes on the body.
The coloration of an adult male is grayish-olive spar-
ingly lined by buffy, with the midline of the back crossed
by an indistinct white bar. The lower sides are marked by
a line of irregular white spots and the hind quarters are
spotted by several conspicuous white spots. The breast
is dark seal-brown with a white bar at the axillae; another
back of the knee and a white spot on the inside from the knee
to the pastern. The front of the pastern is marked by two
large white spots. The hind legs are marked by a white
spot behind the hocks and a broad white stripe on the inside
of the legs from the hocks to the pasterns, the latter marked
with two large white spots in front as on the forelegs.
The tail is bushy and has the hair above and on the sides
olive-brown, marked by a narrow streak of white on the
under side; hair at tip is indistinctly blackish. The neck
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 435
is brown, without a definite collar, being short-haired to the
white bar on the lower throat, where the long olive hair of
the body begins abruptly. The upper throat has a large
median white spot. The snout is without white chevrons.
The crown of the head and the snout are olive-brown and
the sides of the head are ochraceous-tawny. The cheeks be-
low the eye are marked by two large white spots. The upper
lips, chin, and forethoat are white. The back of the ears is
olive-brown and the tips are seal-brown, while the inside and
the base are whitish. The adult female has the sides of the
body bright ochraceous-tawny, with the median area much
darker cinnamon-brown, through the centre of which ex-
tends a thin white dorsal stripe from the withers to the tail.
The sides of the body are marked with six or seven transverse
white stripes, the anterior ones being the longest. The
lower sides are marked by a line of white spots and the
hind quarters with about a dozen similar spots irregularly
arranged. The breast is buffy and lighter than the sides;
the belly is white. The legs are bright-tawny with the white
areas arranged as in the male. The tail shows much more
white below than that of the male, only the median dorsal
line being cinnamon like the body color. The collar on the
neck is more distinctly marked than in the male. The
crown of the head is bright-rufous, the snout dorsally olive-
brown with narrow white chevrons from the eye to the snout,
and the rest of the head is colored as in the male.
An adult male buck measured in the flesh: 44 inches in
length of head and body ; tail, 8 inches ; hind foot, I4>< inches ;
ear, 5^ inches; length of skull, 9 inches. The horns of
the type measure in length 12 inches on the curve of the
keel. The specimen in the British Museum from Lamu has
much greater horns, their length on the curve being i6f^
inches. The female is somewhat smaller than the male.
Uganda Bushbuck
Tragelaphus scriptus dama
Native Names: Kavirondo, ngao; Luganda, engabi.
Tragelaphus dama Neumann, 1902, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freunde, Bed., p. 97.
Range. — From the Kavirondo country on the northeast
coast of the Victoria Nyanza westward throughout Uganda
and northward through the highlands as far as the latitude
436 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of Nimule. Absent from the low country bordering the
Nile and the Victoria Nyanza, where the race bor occurs.
Herr Neumann described this race from some flat skins
which he obtained from the natives in the Kavirondo coun-
try, where the race reaches its extreme eastern limits and
is not so well marked as in central Uganda. Speke and
Grant met with the bushbuck on several occasions in
Uganda. Grant described one he shot very carefully and
mentions the aversion the natives have for it, owing to their
superstitious belief regarding the unwholesomeness of its
flesh as food. This belief regarding the poisonous character
of the flesh of the bushbuck is quite universal among the
natives of British East Africa.
The Uganda bushbuck approaches the highland race of
East Africa most closely in color and size. It is distinguish-
able from this race by the much lighter color of the old
bucks, which never become seal-brown, but are a light
ochraceous-tawny. They are marked more numerously by
white spots, a row extending from the forelegs to the hind
quarters, where they merge with an irregular assemblage of
spots. No transverse white stripes are found in the old
males. The body of the female is, however, crossed by
from four to six transverse stripes, and she has also well-
marked rows of spots on the flanks and hind quarters. The
immature male is striped and spotted like the female, but
has the blackish breast and belly and the dorsal mane of
short hair of the adult male. From the Nile bushbuck this
race is at once distinguishable by the absence of both trans-
verse or longitudinal stripes in the adult male, and by the
much larger body size. It does, however, approach the
Nile race in the similarity in body color between the sexes.
The line of spots on the flanks marks the position of the white
longitudinal stripe in bor.
No measurements of adult male specimens in the flesh
are available. An adult female, however, measured in
length of head and body 49 inches; tail, 83/^ inches; hind
foot, I33<( inches; ear, 5>^ inches. The skull of an old male
has a length of 9^ inches, with a length of horn along the
curve of the keel of 143^ inches.
Specimens have been examined from the Maanja River
in central Uganda and the types from Kavirondo. Bush-
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 437
buck from the headwaters of the 'Nzoia River immediately
above the Kavirondo country are dark-colored like dela-
merei^ old males from this elevated region being quite as
dark as any from the Aberdare Mountains. The record
horn length of this race recorded by Ward is i83<( inches,
based on a specimen shot in Unyoro by F. A. Knowles, the
district commissioner.
Nile Bushbuck
Tragelaphus scriptus bor
Native Names: Djeng, bor; Bongo, tobbo; Dinka, pehr.
Tragelaphus bor Heuglin, 1877, Reise, Nord-Ost Africa, II, p. 122.
Range. — Upper Nile from the Albert Nyanza north to
the limit of the bush country in the White Nile region, east
to the Nile-Rudolf watershed and west over the Congo
watershed to the headwaters of the Congo system.
Heuglin described the bushbuck of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
region in 1877, giving to it the name bor, by which it was
known to the Djengs who dwell in the country lying be-
tween the mouth of the Sobat and the Bahr el Zeraf. Doctor
Schweinfurth also met with it during his travels in the up-
per Bahr-el-Ghazal district in 1869. He makes mention of
its extreme shyness, solitary habits, and the ease with which
it is detected by the eye, owing to its striped coloration.
In an appendix to his narrative of his travels he furnishes a
long list of names by which the bushbuck is known to the
various tribes he encountered.
The Nile bushbuck is scarcely distinguishable from the
typical race from West Africa. The male may be dis-
tinguished by the collar on the nape, and the darker throat,
but the color pattern is quite the same as in scriptus. The
female cannot be distinguished from the typical form. It
is quite remarkable that the bushbucks show practically no
racial variation from the Nile to Senegal, a distance of three
thousand miles, while eastward they break up into several
races within an area of less than one thousand miles' width.
From delamerei it is distinguishable by its numerous trans-
verse stripes, the single longitudinal stripe, and the rufous
color of the adult male. It approaches more closely dama
in coloration, but is readily distinguishable by the presence
438 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of the longitudinal stripe and the more numerous transverse
stripes, as well as by the smaller body size and much smaller
ears.
The adult male has the collar indicated upon the nape
by an area of short, uniform bone-brown hair which does
not reach more than half-way down on the sides. In the
female the collar is not indicated, .either by color or length
of hair. The male and female have the same color pattern,
the body being crossed by eight to ten transverse white
stripes, none of which are uniformly white. The lower sides
are marked by a clear white longitudinal stripe extending
from the shoulder to the middle of the body and continued
to the hind quarters by elongate white spots. The hind
quarters are marked by several rows of white spots which
extend well up toward the base of the tail. The dorsal mane
is blackish basally, and has the hair white-tipped, but is only
indicated in the female by a dark stripe with occasional
white hairs. The male has the breast seal-brown and the
legs dark-brown with white areas as in delamerei. The
female has the breast lighter than the sides, buffy-ochraceous,
and the legs light-colored with only a median seal-brown
stripe in front. The head is colored alike in both sexes and
closely resembles delamerei in pattern and shade. The
nursing young are like the female in color.
An adult male in the flesh measured: 49 inches in length
of head and body; tail, 7 inches; hind foot, I4>^ inches; ear,
51^ inches. A female measured: 44 inches in length; tail, 7
inches; hind foot, 13 inches; ear, 5 inches. Skull of a male
measures in greatest length 9 inches, that of a female 8>^
inches. The longest horns measured ii>2 inches on the
curve of the keel in a series of three adults. Ward's record
is a Soudan specimen measuring i^Yz inches.
A series representing all ages has been examined from
Rhino Camp, Lado Enclave, and single specimens from Ni-
mule and a locality eighty miles east of Gondokoro. Speci-
mens from the two sides of the Nile are quite' alike, as are
also those from the headwaters of the Congo tributaries of
the Ituri and Welle. The race is not confined to the valley
of the Nile, but extends westward into the Congo water-
shed.
MAP 12 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE BUSHBUCK
1 Tragelaphus scriptus massaicus 2 Tragelaphus scriptus olivaceus 3 Tragelaphus scriptus delamerei
4 Tragelaphus scriptus dama 5 Tragelaphus scriptus hor 6 Tragelaphus scriptus nigrinoiatus
7 Tragelaphus scriptus meneliki 8 Tragelaphus scriptus viulticolor 9 Tragelaphus scriptus decula
The heazy black line on this and the folloiuing maps indicates the route of Col. Roosevelt's African e.rf'cdliiou ofrooQ-ro.
439
440 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
SiTATUNGA
Limnoiragus
Limnotragus Sclater and Thomas, 1900, Book of Antelopes, vol. 4, p. 149;
type L. spekei.
The sitatunga has been accorded generic distinction from
the bushbuck chiefly on account of its elongated hoofs and
the more open spiral of the horns. In shape of body and
coloration it closely resembles the bushbuck, but has the
white markings of that species much less clearly marked.
The tail is not bushy, but rather thin-haired basally, with a
tuft at the tip. The ears are smaller than in the bushbuck,
but have the same broad shape. The pelage is long every-
where on the body, but there is no dorsal mane as in the male
bushbuck. The hoofs are very long and sharply pointed,
their length being more than twice their basal width. The
back of the pasterns and the area about the false hoofs are
naked and pad-like as in the lechwi, which is also a swamp-
haunting genus. The elongate shape of the hoof is an adap-
tation to give the foot greater support in the soft, swampy
ground which the animal frequents. The horns are much
longer than in the bushbuck, more openly spiral, with usu-
ally more than one complete turn, and white tipped for an
inch or more at the point. The skull exhibits a much
smaller orbit than in the bushbuck, and has much narrower
mesopterygoid fossa. Three forms are included which ex-
hibit discontinuous distribution paralleling the lechwi some-
what in this respect. One of these is known in Uganda,
another from the swamps of the upper Zambesi, and a third
from the mouth of the Congo and the West Coast of Africa.
The differences in these races are in coloration chiefly, there
being no difference in body size.
Uganda Sitatunga
Limnotragus spekei
Native Names: Luganda, chobe ; Karagwe, nzoe.
Tragelaphus spekei Sclater, 1863, Speke's Journ. Dlscov., p. 223.
Range. — North and west drainage area of the Victoria
Nyanza from Mount Elgon westward as far as Mount
Ruwenzori and north to the Bahr-el-Ghazal district.
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 441
Speke and Grant, while sojourning in Karagwe, west of
the Victoria Nyanza, were presented by the ruler of the dis-
trict, King Rumanika, with a live specimen and some heads
of the sitatunga, obtained in some of the small lakes of the
neighborhood. These specimens formed the basis for Scla-
ter's description of the species in Speke's "^Journal of the Dis-
covery of the Source of the Nile." Very few sportsmen have
met with the sitatunga, however. Gedge, in 1893, secured
a large number from one of the small islands of the Sessi
group in the Victoria Nyanza. More recently one has
been obtained near Kampala, Uganda, by Kermit Roosevelt.
Sportsmen have also recorded them from swamps at the
west base of Elgon, on the headwaters of the 'Nzoia River,
east of Elgon, and the Bahr-el-Ghazal district. Although
sitatungas have been secured by several sportsmen recently
in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district, they are not yet known to
occur in the intervening stretch of the Nile from the Albert
Nyanza to the mouth of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
We only came on the sitatunga in the Uganda marshes.
It is the most water-loving of antelopes, never leaving the
marshes except at night to feed in the meadows in their
immediate vicinity. Its exceedingly long hoofs make it a
slow and clumsy runner on dry land, but enable it to thread
its way with ease through mud and water among the high
reeds. In the reed beds it is practically safe from all enemies,
and it is rarely so much as seen; but at night when feeding
outside them it is occasionally killed by the leopard, and
even by the lion. In certain places it can be killed in time
of flood from canoes, owing to having been drowned out of its
proper haunts; but ordinarily the only way to get it is to
have a marsh driven by beaters. It makes well-beaten
paths through its haunts, in the papyrus, the reeds, and the
long grass, and it sneaks through these so silently, and is so
exceedingly shy that it is hard to get a glimpse of it as it
442 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
slides over the treacherous mud, or swims where the water
is deep. We found the sitatunga hving in papyrus where the
water was waist-deep on a man. The stomach of the one
Kermit shot was filled, not with grass, but with the leaves
and twig tops of a shrub which grew in and alongside of the
swamps.
The Uganda sitatunga is readily distinguishable from the
Zambesi species, selousi, by the marked sexual difference in
color, the female being rufous and the male drab-brown.
In selousi both sexes are drab-brown. The males of the two
species are distinguishable by the more spotted and striped
character of the coat in the Uganda sitatunga, which has
faint indications on the body of the white stripes and spots
of the female. From the Congo sitatunga there are only
slight racial differences, the two forms being closely related
by the similarity of the coloration of the females, which are
rufous, with indications of transverse white stripes on the
body. The male of the Congo race is much more distinctly
banded and spotted on the sides of the body than is the case
with spekei, although both are alike in the general drab-
brown tone of coloration.
The coloration of the male is uniform drab-brown with
the median dorsal line marked by a whitish stripe. There is
a white bar in front of the chest and a white spot on the fore-
throat. The sides of the body are marked by three or four
faint indications of white transverse stripes which reach only
half-way down the sides. There are a few white hairs on
the lower sides indicating the lower lateral line of spots in
bushbucks, and the hind quarters are marked by several
distinct spots. The breast is drab-brown, like the dorsal
surface, and the belly whitish, the white extending down the
inside of the hind leg to the hoof, where it merges with the
white spots in front of the pastern; rest of leg drab-brown,
like the body color. The foreleg is white at the axilla, the
white area continuing down the inside of the leg to the pas-
tern, as in the hind leg. The tail is tufted at the tip, the hair
at the base being shorter and less abundant, and is colored
above drab-brown, the under side being marked by a nar-
MAP 13 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES AND RACES OF SITATUNGAS
1 Limnotragus spekii spekii 2 Limnotragus spekii gratus 3 Limnotragus selousi
443
444 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
row line of white. The head is drab-brown and the snout
is marked by two broad white chevrons from above the eye
to the midhne of the snout, where, however, they are sepa-
rated by a narrow space. The cheeks below the eye are
marked by two white spots. The upper lips and chin are
white. The ears are small but broad, and are seal-brown on
the terminal half with the rest of back, base, and whole
inside white. The female is bright tawny-rufous with a
dark stripe following the median line of the back, with
indications of several white stripes on the body, and the legs
are striped with white, as in the male. The young show the
transverse white stripes much more distinctly than the adult
female. The characteristic white markings on the head,
throat, and legs of the bushbuck are found in the sitatunga,
but they are much less conspicuous.
The male shot by Kermit Roosevelt measured in the flesh:
in length of head and body, 54 inches; tail, I2j^ inches;
hind foot, 19^2 inches; ear, 5^ inches, and height at the
withers, 39>J inches. The skull of this specimen measures
in length lof^ inches. The longest horns recorded by Ward
are from the Bahr el Ghazal, and show a length around the
curve of 35 inches. Average horns are, however, much less
in length, 20 inches being the usual length.
Lesser Koodoo
Ammelaphus
Ammelaphus Heller, 1912, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 8, p. 15.
The lesser koodoo has been given generic distinction from
the greater owing to the more narrowly spiral horns, absence
of a throat mane, and presence of the white patches on the
throat and chest, as in the bushbuck. It is quite evident
from these difl^erences in coloration that the lesser koodoo is
no more closely related to the greater koodoo than it is to
the bushbuck or the bongo. The color pattern is almost
identical with that of the bongo in those features in which it
differs from the greater koodoo, that is, the absence of a
throat mane and the white patches on the throat and chest.
The body stripes are practically the same in number and
position as in the bongo, from which it differs decidedly by
i
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LESSER KOODOO
From Somaliland. Group in Field Museum, Chicago
Mounted by Carl E. Akelev
GREATER KOODOO
From Somaliland. Group in Field Museum, Chicago
Mounted by Carl E. Akeley
THE GREATER AND THE LESSER KOODOO
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 445
the difference in the shape of the horns, and their absence in
the female, and the bushy tail. Besides the color differences
from the greater koodoo, there are some distinctions in the
skull. The snout is longer, the premaxillary bones being
much longer than in the greater koodoo. The genus con-
tains but one species, the lesser koodoo.
East African Lesser Koodoo
Ammelaphus imherbis australis
Native Names: Swahili, kungu; Duruma, chakwa.
Afnmelaphus imberbis australis Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No.
13, p. 2.
Range. — From Ugogo, in central German East Africa,
northward through the Rift Valley to the British East
African border, where it spreads eastward to the coast and
northward to southern Abyssinia and Somaliland; not oc-
curring above an altitude of three thousand feet.
The typical lesser koodoo was first described by Edward
Blyth in 1869, but it was not for several years afterward that
the difference with the greater koodoo was clearly defined,
owing to the absence of specimens in Europe. Sir John
Kirk obtained the first specimens in East Africa, in 1873,
at Brava near the mouth of the Juba River. Later Wil-
loughby and Jackson obtained specimens in the Taita coun-
try, east of Kilimanjaro. The present race was recently
described from specimens secured by the Rainey expedition,
south of Mount Marsabit.
The lesser koodoo inhabits the level, bush-covered desert
at low altitudes, usually occurring in rather dense thickets
and seldom in scattered or open bush. The males are usually
solitary, but the females are found in smaller groups of two to
four, with their young. Usually such groups are made up
of an old female with a yearling offspring and a nursing kid.
When startled they sometimes utter a sharp, barking call,
similar to that made by the bushbuck, and bound away in
great leaps, at times clearing bushes six feet high. Their
feeding time is at dusk and again at dawn. The hot hours
of midday are spent in the security of some impenetrable
thicket. Their food consists chiefly of the twigs of acacias
446 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
and various other bushes. They are, no doubt, Independent
of water, although they are seldom found in absolutely water-
less deserts. They have not, however, been observed drinking
at water-holes, to which other game resort for such purposes
in the desert districts they inhabit. The East African lesser
koodoo resembles imberbis of Somaliland closely, but differs
by darker coloration, absence of the white spots on the front
of the pasterns on the forelegs, and shorter horns.
The coloration of the male is bright-tawny lined with
black along the median dorsal region. The vertebral line
is marked by an ill-defined white-and-black dorsal stripe and
the sides are crossed by twelve to thirteen conspicuous
transverse white stripes from the dorsal stripe to the under-
parts. The lower sides and the breast are ochraceous, and
the midline of the chest is marked by a broad black stripe,
but the belly and groins are pure white. The forelegs are
pure ochraceous, without the white spot on the front of the
pasterns. The band above the hoofs and the back of the pas-
terns are black. There is a black band on the back of the leg
just above the knee, bordered below by a white band at the
knee. The hind legs are ochraceous, with a white spot on the
front of the pasterns and a black band above the hoofs, and
the back of the pasterns are black. There is a white stripe
on the inside of the leg from the white of the belly to the
hock. The tail is tawny above, white below, and tip seal-
brown. The neck is somewhat lighter than the body, being
ecru-drab with a narrow black stripe on the nape from the
head to the withers. There is a white patch on the forethroat
and a larger oval one near the base of the throat. The crown
of the head is seal-brown, banded in front by white chevron
bars from the eyes to the snout. The median line of the
snout is walnut-brown. The sides of the head are ecru-drab,
with two white spots below the eye and a short white post-
ocular stripe. The lips and chin are white, bordered by dusky.
The back of ears is ochraceous, the tip narrowly margined
by blackish; inside and base white. The female resembles
the male closely in color, but is lighter, being ochraceous-
tawny, very scantily lined by black, with the crown of the
head lighter— tawny rather than seal-brown. The young are
like the adult in pattern of coloration but in tone somewhat
lighter. Sexes quite equal in size.
/ fArr
h'L DOLF
0i Kt.UarsabIt
MAP 14 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE
LESSER KOODOO
1 Ammelaphus imberbis australis
447
448 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The measurements in the flesh of an adult female were:
head and body, 59 inches; tail, 14 inches; hind foot, i8>^
inches; ear, 8 inches. Length of skull, 12 inches. Fully
grown horns usually measure 30 inches on the curve. The
record length recorded by Ward for British East Africa is 33
inches. This specimen was shot by A. H. Neumann, the ele-
phant hunter. Ward records a considerable number from
Somaliland exceeding Neumann's head by an inch or two,
the average horn length in Somaliland being about equal to
the record of British East Africa.
Greater Koodoo
Strepsiceros
Strepsiceros Hamilton Smith, 1827, Griffith's Anim. Kingd., V, p. 365; type
species S. strepsiceros.
The koodoo is best characterized by its immense spiral
horns and long throat mane, both of which are found in the
male sex only. The horns are a wide, open spiral in shape
which make two or three complete turns. In section the
horns are circular, with a rounded keel, not flattened or fur-
nished with a sharp keel as in the bushbuck. They more
closely resemble the open spiral horns of the nyala, which
is also a bearded or throat-maned antelope with transverse
white body stripes. The lesser koodoo has horns very similar
in shape, and on this account has been associated genetically
with the greater koodoo, but it differs by having the spiral
much closer and lacking the throat mane. The female
koodoo is hornless and without the throat mane, but in
coloration is identical with the male. The tail is bushy
throughout, the hair at the tip slightly longer than at the
base and rather short in length, being intermediate in length
between that of a bushbuck and an eland. The greater
koodoo ranges from the Cape Colony northward to Angola on
the West Coast, and on the east through the Zambesi Valley
to Abyssinia. It is absent from the Congo basin and the re-
gion north and west to the Sahara. Owing to the bushy char-
acter of its haunts and its extreme alertness and shyness, the
koodoo has persisted throughout most of its original range,
even in Cape Colony. It is very local, the areas which it
inhabits being widely scattered. A single living species is
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 449
known. Two fossil species are described, one from the
Pliocene of India and a more recent Pleistocene species
from Algeria.
East African Greater Koodoo
Strepsiceros strepsiceros hea
Native Names: Swahili, mama; Masai, olmaalo.
Strepsiceros strepsiceros hea Heller, 1913; Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 13,
P- 3-
Range. — Rift Valley and coast desert drainage in Ger-
man and British East Africa. Confined to isolated localities
which are widely separated.
The greater koodoo was first reported from British East
Africa by Count Teleki, who obtained two in 1887, east of
Lake Baringo, in the same district where Kermit Roosevelt
obtained his specimens. Jackson early reported them from
the coast district near the Taita Hills, and A. H. Neumann
found a few in the hills near the south end of Lake Rudolf
in 1895. Recently a few have been seen on the German
border near the Southern Guaso Nyiro River. The present
race was described from specimens shot by Kermit Roosevelt,
at Donyo Gelasha, near Lake Baringo.
Kermit was the only member of our party who came across
the koodoo, the most beautiful of African antelopes. He
found them east of Lake Baringo, in rough, dry, volcanic
country. They were always found on rocky hills, covered
with a jungle of thorn scrub and tree euphorbias. Usually
they rested during the hot midday hours, but once Kermit
came on two which were drinking in a stream exactly at
noon. They were wary. The stomachs of the two which
Kermit shot, a bull and a cow, were filled with grass; the
beasts were grazing at the time.
The East African race is similar to the Abyssinian race
diora in the reduced number of body stripes, but decidedly
darker in color on the median dorsal region, ear tips, and the
450 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
bands on the pasterns. The pelage is longer and the white
stripes are very distinctly marked. It is brighter-colored
than the typical race from South Africa, the stripes being
much more conspicuous although less in number.
The coloration is ochraceous-tawny, but the median
dorsal region is darker, being seal-brown with a white
stripe following the vertebral column from the withers to
the rump. The sides are marked by six or eight transverse
white bands which extend from the median dorsal stripe
to the ventral surface or lower sides. The under-parts are
ochraceous with a broad blackish stripe extending medially
on the breast. The groins and the inside of the legs are
whitish and the front of the legs ochraceous. The band
above the hoofs and the back of the pasterns are black, and
the front of the pasterns are marked by a large blotch of whit-
ish. The tail is tawny-ochraceous like the body, the tip
darker walnut-brown, and the under side white. The neck
is drab-gray, and the nape has a thin mane of long, dusky-
brown hair, which is continued along the midline of the back
to the tail. The throat has a long mane of brownish hair
extending to the chest; the sides are buffy. The crown of
the head is walnut-brown crossed on the snout by a wide
diagonal white band from the eye, which meets its fellow on
the snout. The sides of the face are ecru-drab and marked
by two indistinct white spots below the eye. The lips and
chin are white. The back of the ears is hair-brown, the ter-
minal half being seal-brown, and the inside and base whitish.
The female is usually longer-haired than the male and has
the white body stripes more distinctly marked. The throat
mane is absent and the dorsal mane is not so distinct.
The koodoos found near Baringo are confined to a few
square miles of country among rocky hills, and are widely sep-
arated from any other group. One hundred miles north, near
the south shore of Lake Rudolf, are a few others, while to the
south the nearest ones occur on the German border near the
Southern Guaso Nyiro River. Wide breaks of this sort, how-
ever, are characteristic of the distribution of the greater koo-
doo, owing, no doubt, to the isolated nature of the hilly and
rocky country which they select as their haunts.
No flesh measurements are available. The skull of the
adult male measures i6 inches in greatest length. The
MAP 15 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE
GREATER KOODOO
1 Strepsiceros strepsiceros hea
451
452 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
horns of the male shot by Kermit Roosevelt measure 47
inches along the curve. Ward records a specimen from
East Africa having a horn length of 61 inches.
The Bongo
Boocercus
Boocercus Thomas, 1902, Jnn. l^ Mag. Nat. Ilisi., vol. X, p. 309; type B.
eurycerus isaaci.
The genus was founded by Thomas on the character of
the horned female in distinction to the hornless females of
the genus Tragelaphus, to which it was formerly assigned
under the supposition that the females were hornless. The
horns are, moreover, much broader and heavier than in the
bushbuck. The coloration is quite different from that of the
most fully striped bushbucks, the pattern consisting of trans-
verse white stripes without the longitudinal stripes found in
the harnessed bushbuck. The tail is bovine like that of the
eland, not bushy as in the bushbuck. In the horned char-
acter of the female, the striped body, and bovine tail, the
bongo resembles the eland and may be considered its forest
representative. Only a single species is known, which ex-
hibits wide, discontinuous distribution.
The genus occurs on the West Coast of Africa from the
mouth of the Congo River north along the Guinea coast to
Sierra Leone, and again appears in the highlands of Brit-
ish East Africa, where it ranges from the Mau Escarpment
to Mount Kenia.
Bongo
Boocercus eurycerus isaaci
Native Names: Kikuyu, ndongoro; 'Ndorobo, stroya.
Range. — Highland forest of British East Africa from
the Mau Escarpment eastward through the Kikuyu Escarp-
ment and the Aberdare Range to Mount Kenia. Not found
below an altitude of six thousand feet.
The bongo was originally described by Ogilby as early as
1836, from a pair of horns of unknown origin. The color-
ation was not, however, known until 1861, when Du Chaillu
described it from a skin which he had obtained in the forests
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 453
of the Gaboon, some distance north of the mouth of the
Congo River. He gave it the name albo-virgattus, supposing
it to be new to science. Although it was already named, he
was the first to describe it fully and give it a definite local-
ity. We owe also to Du Chaillu the name bongo, by which,
he states, it is known to the natives of the Gaboon. Even
at the present day the typical race is represented in museums
by only a half-dozen skins, none of which are female, so
that direct evidence is still lacking concerning the horned
character of the female in the West African race. The race
appears to be very local on the West Coast. Specimens have
been secured in isolated localities north of the Gaboon on
the Gold Coast, in Liberia, and In Sierra Leone. The first
specimen secured in East Africa consisted of a pair of horns
from the Ravine Station, on the Mau Escarpment, ob-
tained from the native bushmen dwelling in the forest and
sent by Jackson to the British Museum In 1897. They were
erroneously identified by Sclater as horns of the nyala, a
buck not known to occur north of the Zambesi drainage.
In 1902 Isaac, who was then stationed at Ravine, obtained
from the natives both skulls and skins, and these enabled
Thomas to identify the animal positively. Recently sports-
men have made special efforts to obtain specimens, but the
bongo is so secretive and keen-sensed that very few have
been successful. Specimens obtained from the 'Ndorobo,
who catch them occasionally in pits, are not rare, and many
of these are now in collections.
Although in company with Lord Delamere and a number
of ^Ndorobo friends of Delamere's we hunted several days
for bongo, and followed their fresh trails for hours, the only
member of our party who saw them was Kermit, who killed
two, an adult cow and a half-grown one. Mr. George Grey
(whose own lamentable death by a lion Is elsewhere re-
corded) soon afterward killed a bull, which he most kindly
presented to us, so as to complete the group for the Smith-
sonian. When mounted, the label is to record the fact that
he is the donor of the bull.
454 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The bongo is intermediate in size and bodily character-
istics between a bushbuck and an eland. It is also in some
respects intermediate in habits; like the former, it haunts
dense cover, and, like the latter, is found in herds. But it
differs markedly from both in many other respects. It is
a beast of the dense forests and high timber; among big
beasts its haunts are shared only by the forest hog and the
leopard. The leopard preys on the young of both the hog
and the antelope; but it does not attack the adult hog, and
never meddles with an adult bongo — an animal as large as
an Alderney cow, both sexes of which carry long and sharp
horns.
The dense, dark, wet forests in which the bongo dwells
are filled with a mass of undergrowth — bushes, bamboo,
plants of various kinds. It is impossible to see more than
a few yards through this growth, and almost impossible for
a man to traverse it noiselessly; whereas the bongo runs
through it at speed and most often in a crouching position,
getting under low limbs and through narrow openings in a
way astounding for so big an animal. It is exceedingly shy
and wary, and is such an adept in skulking, hiding, running,
and watching that even the 'Ndorobo, the wild, naked hunt-
ers of the dense forests, find it very difficult to kill; while
only half a dozen white men, or even fewer, have ever shot it.
We did not find the bongo nocturnal. The 'Ndorobo,
with whom we hunted, said they never fed at night. We
came across one solitary bull and four herds, and followed
their trails for hours, studying what they did. The bull,
and three of the four herds, lay down and rested in the
middle of the day, and fed as they moved slowly forward
through the forenoon and the afternoon. The fourth herd
EAST AFRICAN BO.N'GO, MALE
From Mau Escarpment, B. E. A.
Presented by W. N. McMillan to the United States National Museum
EAST AFRICAN ELAND, YOUNG MALE, DOMESTICATED
Meru Station, Mt. Kenia
BONGO AND ELAND FROM EAST AFRICA
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 455
continued feeding, without lying down, from the middle of
the forenoon, when we struck their tracks, until the middle
of the afternoon, when we unfortunately alarmed the
animals, whereupon they went straight up the mountain
and over the rim rock. We twice found the night beds of a
herd, which, as our 'Ndorobo trailers pointed out, had been
occupied for the whole preceding night. It was cold, rainy
weather, and the dark of the moon; perhaps they might
feed under the full moon, and in better weather. They do
not graze, but browse, cropping the leaves, flowers, and twigs
of various shrubs, and eating thistles and the flowering tops
of certain rank plants; the stomachs of Kermit's specimens
contained leaves from a vine allied to the common grape,
Cissus. The 'Ndorobo said they sometimes broke branches
with their horns, and sometimes scored the earth with them.
They wear deep trails through the gloomy mountain forests
in which they dwell; these trails converge toward the rapid,
foaming brooks which run between the steep, thickly
wooded spurs of the mountains.
The bongo resembles closely the typical species of West
Africa, but appears to be larger and darker colored and per-
haps marked with a few less transverse stripes. No exact
comparison, however, can be made at present, owing to the
lack of specimens from West Africa available for examina-
tion.
The color of an adult male is bright burnt-sienna or
chestnut, the body marked by twelve to fourteen conspicu-
ous white bands from the dorsal mane to the lower sides.
The stripes cover the area from the base of the neck to the
base of the tail. Along the median dorsal region extends a
thin mane of black hair crossed at intervals by the white
bands. The tail is burnt-sienna like the back above with
a narrow band of white below and a long tuft of black hair
at the tip. The breast and belly are solid black. The
456 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
groins are white, the white extending in a narrow hne to the
base of the tail and continued as a broad band down the front
of the leg to the hoof, but interrupted by the dark hock-band
and the band at false hoofs. There is a white bar on the inside
of the forelegs followed below on the inside by a black one, and
a white bar behind the knee and another on the front of the
pasterns; the rest of the foreleg is black. The neck is dark
seal-brown on the nape and black on the median line of the
throat. The lower throat is marked by a wide transverse band
of white. The crown of head is chestnut and the interorbital
region black with broad white chevrons extending from the
eye. The snout is black on the top and the sides to the throat.
The lips and chin are white, and the orbital region and area
below the eye are tawny. The sides of the cheek behind the
eye are marked by two large white spots. The ears are large
and broad; the back chestnut, the outside edge and terminal
half black, and the inside white. There is much variation
in the extent of the black. In some males only the throat
is blackish, the nape being chestnut. The female has the
same pattern of color as the male, but is brighter red, the
body being Mars-brown and the dorsal mane chiefly white.
There is much less black than in the male, the nape being
without black, the legs being chiefly reddish and only the me-
dian line of the belly is black. Newly born young have the
color pattern of the adults, but the body is rich tawny and the
dark areas are much suppressed. The tail is not bovine as
in the adult but bushy throughout as in the koodoo, the tip
being without a longer tuft. The muzzle and the median ven-
tral stripe are hair-brown and the dorsal mane is white. Eight
skins have been examined, six of which are adult males. The
body stripes show considerable variation, and range from
eleven to fourteen, and also show variations of number on
the two sides. Twelve stripes seem to be the normal number.
Most of the specimens secured from natives come from
the Mau forest west of Njoro, but the bongo has also been
obtained in the Kikuyu forests near Escarpment Station
and in the forest on the south slope of Mount Kenia.
The female shot by Kermit Roosevelt near Njoro meas-
ured in the flesh: Sif^ inches in length of head and body;
tail, I4>:4 inches; ear, I2>^ inches; and height at the withers,
44 inches. The skull of a large male measures in length
17 inches, that of the adult female 1 5 inches. The horns of the
MAP 16— DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE BONGO
1 Boocercus eurycerus eurycerus 2 Boocercus eurycerus isaaci
457
458 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
female are 20 inches, those of the largest male In a series of
three specimens 28^2 inches. Ward's record male is 36^
inches in length of horns.
Eland
Taurotragus
Taurotragus Wagner, 1855, Schreber's Saiigethiere, Suppl., vol. V, p. 439;
type, T. oryx Pallas.
In the eland the horns are present in both sexes, curved
in a close spiral, and marked by a prominent rounded keel
which is most pronounced basally. The horns usually exceed
the head in length, and are heaviest in the male but longer
in the female. The skull has practically no characters, the
two species differing more from each other in shape and rela-
tive sizes of the lachrymal, nasal, and premaxillary bones than
do the other genera of the Tragela-phince. The body size is
large, about equalling the ox, but the legs are more slender
and the neck deeper. A dorsal mane extends from the head
to the shoulders. The lower throat is adorned by a pendent
dewlap which is best developed in the male. The hair on
forehead becomes lengthened and bushy in old males. The
tail reaches the hocks and is tufted. Both sexes are marked
on the body by from ten to sixteen narrow white transverse
stripes which become obsolete in old males. The inside of
the foreleg above the knee is marked by a dark transverse
bar and the breast and the belly along the median line are
marked by a broad blackish band. The living species are oryx
and derbiafius, both having one or more geographical races.
The eland ranges in Africa from the Senegal and Gambia
watersheds, the western affluents of the White Nile, Uganda
and British East Africa from Gondokoro and Mount Elgon
southward to the Cape region. They occur on open veldt
and bush-covered country within a vertical range from sea-
level to eight thousand feet. One Pliocene species is known
from India and a later Pleistocene species from Algeria.
The genus Paleoreas, which ranged from the Miocene to
the Pliocene, is quite distinct, but shows the short rostrum
of derbianus. It had, however, nearly vertically directed
horns, like those of the koodoo, extending directly above
the eyes.
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 459
Key to the Species of Taurotragus
Ears broad and rounded with a black bar on inside of hinder margin;
mane on nape black, long and extended, covering
whole nape and sides of neck; throat fringed by a
narrow mane; a white bar across lower throat;
cheeks with two large white spots; fetlocks banded
in front by a black bar; horns very long, twice length
of head; rostral part of skull short. derbianus
Ears narrow and pointed, without a dark bar on inside; mane on neck
when developed only covering nape and never black
in color; no white throat bar or cheek spots; legs uni-
formly colored on outer side; horns short, not greatly
exceeding length of head; rostral part of skull elon-
gate, oryx
The Giant Eland
Taurotragus derbianus gigas
Native Names: Bari (Swaka), tukectuk; Bong Bong, boroku; Ojeng, qual-
qual; Djur, adjur; Dor, newarreh.
Boselaphus gigas Heuglin, 1863, Nova Acta Acad. Leop., vol. XXX, p. 19,
pi. I, fig. 2 (horns).
Range. — So far as known the giant eland is confined
to the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Lado Enclave Provinces of the
Egyptian Soudan. It is limited to the western drainage of
the Bahr-el-Jebel Nile, extending roughly from the vicinity
of Rejaf northward to the Bahr-el-Ghazal River and its
continuation the Bahr-el-Arab; westward it reaches Dem
Zubeir in the Dar Fertit country. The distributiouris lim-
ited to the eastward by the Nile and northward by its
chief western affluent, the Bahr el Ghazal; while westward
the heights of the Nile watershed confine it. In this latter
region, however, it extends to the very borders of the water-
shed in the Niam-Niam country.
Throughout this range it is distributed only locally and is
so rare that it is a very difficult species to obtain. From the
typical race inhabiting Senegal it is separated by a distance of
two thousand miles, the whole drainage system of the Niger
intervening. The two races are so similar that such isola-
tion must be very recent. The case is somewhat paralleled
460 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
by that of the white rhinoceros, which has the same range in
the Bahr el Ghazal, but is widely isolated from its very
close ally the southern white rhinoceros of South Africa.
The giant eland was discovered by Martin Theodore von
Heuglin during his travels in the White Nile region in 1863.
He described the species from a pair of horns collected
somewhere near the present position of Wau, probably
east of it. Later, in 1874, Doctor Georg Schweinfurth pub-
lished the account of his travels in the Bahr-el-Ghazal
region in which he referred to the eland occurring about the
Lehssy River and the village of Sabby in the same vicinity.
During the last fifteen years specimens have been shot in the
Bahr el Ghazal by various sportsmen, notably by Colonel
Sargeant Boardman, Captain Haynes, Leo Franco, Cap-
tain H. R. Headlan, "Bimbashi" Collins, and Prince E.
Demidoff. More recently Colonel Roosevelt and his son
Kermit shot three specimens in the Lado Enclave, and very
recently F. C. Selous secured a female near Wau. The
species, in 1894, was confounded with the common eland
by Sclater and Thomas in the "Book of Antelopes," no
skins at that time being preserved in any museum, the
horns alone being represeni^ed. In April, 1905, Mr. A. L.
Butler published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Soci-
ety color descriptions of the two specimens shot by "Bim-
bashi" Collins, and pointed out the close agreement of these
with the Derby eland. Later in the same year the Honor-
able Walter Rothschild published in Novitates Zoologicae
a colored figure of a mounted head in the Cairo Turf Club
with a note indicating the close relationship of this form
and derbianus.
The giant eland has the regular eland horns, although
very much magnified, but otherwise it resembles a bongo
almost as much as it does the common eland. It frequents
open country, covered by a growth of thorn scrub, its haunts
being much more like those of the common eland than like
those of the bongo; but it breaks the higher branches with
its horns like a bongo, something which we happen never
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 461
to have known the common eland to do. These branches
are broken to get at the leaves; we found them broken at a
height of seven or eight feet, and the crack of the breaking
was one of the sounds for which we Hstened as we followed
the tracks of a herd. The stomach of one of the animals
Kermit shot contained the leaves and pods of a small bean-
tree, Lonchocarpus laxifiorus, and the leaves of the shea
butter-tree, Butyrospermum parki, specimens of which were
preserved by Kermit.
The country in which we found the giant eland was at
that time very dry. The flats of endless dust-colored thorn
scrub, which hid everything at a distance of one or two
hundred yards, were broken by occasional ranges of low,
ragged hills. In the empty watercourses the holes were
many miles apart. The thorn scrub was varied by occa-
sional palms and patches of bamboo, and more often by
trees with bright green leaves and large bean pods. The
elands which we killed had been browsing on the bean pods
and leaves of this tree, and of another less conspicuous tree.
They had not been grazing. They drank at some pool
before dawn, and then travelled many miles into the heart
of the parched flats, browsing as they went. Before noon
they halted, standing or more often lying down, in the scanty
shade of some clump of thorn trees. By mid-afternoon
they again moved off, feeding. They walked fast, and when
alarmed went at a slashing trot.
They were far more wary than the roan, hartebeest, and
other buck found in the same locality. They were found in
herds of from ten to thirty or forty individuals; the old
bulls, as with all gregarious antelopes, were frequently
solitary. The coloring of both the giant eland and the roan
462 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
antelope harmonized well with the dry landscape, and they
were more difficult to make out than the hartebeests.
These eland are said speedily to leave a district if they
are harassed by hunters. They wander far, their wandering
being sometimes seasonal and sometimes due to individual
vagaries. It is said that in the rainy season, when the grass
is thick and tall, they are often killed by lions, which are
then able to get so close as to seize them by the head; but
that in the dry season few are killed by lions because then
the big cat can rarely make his rush from such a short dis-
tance as to insure a grasp of the head, while the quarry is
so huge and strong that if seized elsewhere it can generally
break away.
The giant or Nile Derby eland differs from the typical
race from the Senegal region chiefly by lighter color in the
bull, the females of the two races being quite similar in color
and size. In the Derby eland the old bull has the neck
covered by long black hair, but in the Nile race the lower
sides and throat lack the long black hair; this part being
covered by thin grayish hair like the sides. The material
available of the Derby eland, however, is very scanty. The
only specimens examined were a male and female skin at
the British Museum. The Nile race is much better repre-
sented in collections and it is quite certain that uniformly
black-necked bulls such as the Derby eland at the British
Museum do not occur in the Nile district. The most
heavily maned bull examined is that shot by Colonel
Roosevelt in the Lado. The long black hair covers the
whole nape in this specimen and extends half-way down on
the sides. The younger bull from the same locality shows
only a narrow dorsal mane on the nape.
The old bull shot by Colonel Roosevelt has the ground-
color of the body vinaceous-buif which becomes on the shoul-
ders and the hind quarters ochraceous-buff and on the lower
sides merges gradually into the cream-buff of the under-parts.
A white dorsal stripe of irregular width extends from the black
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 463
mane at the shoulders to theloins and is contlnuedon the rump
by a black stripe. The left side of the body and the back are
marked by twelve, the right by eleven narrow transverse
white stripes at irregular intervals, the stripes being continu-
ous with the white dorsal stripe and often forking before join-
ing, but below they do not extend on to the under-parts. The
tail, above, is light tawny and the brush of long hair at the tip
black; but below it is white, sharply defined on the sides
against the tawny. The legs, on the outside, are ochraceous-
buff to the fetlocks, which are marked by a broad blackish
blotch on the foreleg and a fainter dusky one on the hind
leg. The pasterns behind and both the main and the false
hoofs are encircled by black, but the front of the pastern is
white. The under-parts and the inside of the legs are cream-
buff. The breast and the belly are marked by a broad seal-
brown stripe which is narrowest on the chest but widens pos-
teriorly and covers the whole median portion of the belly.
The foreleg is marked by a broad black bar on the inside below
the elbow. The whole nape, from the base of the skull to be-
tween the shoulders, is covered by a broad mane of long black
hair which extends half-way down to the throat on the sides
of the neck, where it reaches its lowest point just in front of
the shoulder. The individual hairs of the mane are four
inches long, and black for three-fourths of their length, with
the tip buff, but the hair so thin that the brown tips have no
appreciable effect on the general blackness. The sides of the
neck are drab, in contrast to the lighter sides of the head and
body, and the dark area is bordered on the throat pos-
teriorly by a wide band of white. The median line of the
throat is fringed by a narrow mane of blackish hair inter-
mixed with buffy, which forms at the lower part of the
throat a short, pendent dewlap. The cheeks and upper
throat are vinaceous-buff. The chin and upper lips are
white. The cheeks are marked by a white spot below the eye
and the throat by a similar one. The crown of the head has a
slightly bushy mat of ferruginous hair extending from the
horn bases to the interorbital region, where it is bounded
by a white chevron stripe from the eye, but the stripes of
the two sides do not meet on the snout, where they are
separated by a broad black area which extends to the muzzle.
The front of the muzzle and the area below the nostrils
464 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
posteriorly to the upper lips are white; the nostrils them-
selves seal-brown. The whiskers are black. The area above
the eye is white with a dark blotch just below the horn base
and the lower eyelid is white also. The occipital portion of
the head and the back of the ears are ochraceous-buff. The
terminal half of the ears is dark seal-brown and the inside
of the ears is white with a broad seal-brown bar extending
from the posterior border to the centre.
The female shot by Kermit Roosevelt is colored like the
male, but differs distinctly in lacking the great bushy mane
of the nape, this structure being represented by a narrow
median line of black hair. The bush on the forehead is
quite wanting and the ground-color of the body is more
reddish, being ochraceous-buff without the vinaceous tint
except on the lower sides. The dorsal mane of black is
continued along the entire length to the root of the tail, and
is crossed by the white side stripes which number fourteen
on the left side and fifteen on the right. The greater
number of stripes found in this female is not a sexual color
difference but merely an individual variation. The black
blotch on the front of the fetlocks is more distinctly marked
than in the male and the mane on the throat is shorter-haired,
the dewlap being hardly evident.
The coloration of the calf is not known, but it is without
doubt similar to that of the female, as is the case in its near
relative, the common eland. The younger male shot by
Kermit Roosevelt is quite identical in color and mane
characters with the female, although its horns were longer
than those of the old bull. It is an animal just reaching
maturity, the milk molars having only recently been shed.
As age advances in the male, the mane on the neck is
extended, working its way gradually down the sides of the
neck; the body hair becomes thinner and more vinaceous;
the stripes less distinct, some of them disappearing entirely;
and the black bar in front of the fetlock grows fainter and
smaller. The chief color differences of this species from
the common eland are the white bar on the lower throat,
the two white cheek spots, the great black mane on the
nape and shoulders, the black bar on the front of the hocks,
and the broad, black-tipped ears with a black bar on their
inner side. Such color differences are merely a reversion to
MAP 17 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE GIANT ELAND
1 TauTotragus derbianus derbianus 2 Taurotragus derbianus gigas
465
466 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
those of the bongo, this animal being much less specialized
than the common plains eland, which has lost much of its
bush coloration and the broad ears which are a mark of such
environment.
The skull characters of the Nile race are not determina-
ble at the present time, owing to lack of skulls of the typical
race from Senegal for comparison. In skull formation the
species differs greatly from its nearest ally, the common
eland. It is an eland by horn shape and bodily proportions
only, its skull structure being quite similar to that of the
bongo and bushbuck. In agreement with the two latter, it
has the short nasal and premaxillary bones and the wide
lachrymal bone so distinctive of them. In the common
eland these bones are greatly lengthened, giving the animal
an elongate snout. The Nile eland is intermediate between
the bongo and the common eland in both color and skull
characters. These differences in structure and color have
no doubt been brought about by the gradual effect of the
plains environment on the common eland which has for-
saken its ancient bush habitat and browsing habits for the
open plains and a grass diet. Its coloration has reacted to
this change in environment by becoming paler, less striped,
and less spotted; its ears have grown narrow; the muzzle
has become more elongate; the hoofs have lost their pointed
character and become broad; and the forehead has de-
veloped a great bushy mat of hair.
In size the giant eland is practically equalled by the com-
mon eland. The subspecific name has reference chiefly to
the much greater length of the horns, which were the only
available part of the animal for comparison at the time the
race was named. The neck is considerably larger and deeper
and the body somewhat longer than the common eland, which
it exceeds but slightly in size. In the flesh the largest male
measured 9 feet 2 inches in length of head and body; the
tail had a length of 28 inches; the height at the shoulder
was 5 feet 8 inches; the greatest girth of the neck was 5 feet
6 inches and the girth of the chest immediately behind the
foreleg was 8 feet. The adult female nearly equalled these
dimensions in length and height but was much less in girth
of neck and chest or bulk of body. The skull of the old
male, which is the largest, measures in greatest length 18^
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 467
inches. That of the female is one inch shorter. Large
skulls of the common eland are decidedly longer, being igy^
inches in length.
The horns are curved in a wide open spiral and are
quite distinct from the narrow spiral of the common eland;
the keel is also higher and more pronounced in the former.
In length they greatly exceed the common species, aver-
aging a foot longer and are proportionately greater in
girth. The young male had the longest horns of the
three specimens shot near Rejaf. These measure 41 inches
straight, or 47 inches along the curve of the keel, and equal
the known record for the Nile race. The horn length in
the old bull is somewhat less, being only 33^ inches
straight and 45 inches along the curve.
East African Eland
Taurotragus oryx pattersonianus
Native Names: Swahili, mpofu; Masai, osirua; Kikuyu, namu.
Taurotragus oryx pattersonianus Lydekker, 1906, Field (London), vol. CVIII,
P- 579-
Range. — From German East Africa northward through
British East Africa as far as the Lorian swamp and Lai- j^(^V^^l^
kipia Plateau west through Uganda and the west side of
the Nile as far as Mongolia; altitudinal range from sea-
level to eight thousand feet (slopes of Mount Kenia and
Mau Escarpment).
The eland has long been known to sportsmen in East
Africa. It was recorded in central German East Africa
as early as i860 by Speke and Grant. Owing to its wide
distribution it has been met by almost every traveller who
has visited the country. Recently the race from East
Africa has been described as -pattersonianus by Lydekker,
from a specimen secured by Colonel Patterson on the Lai-
kipia Plateau north of Mount Kenia.
This huge, stately antelope, the size of an ox, was no-
where abundant in East Africa; but we found it fairly com-
mon in the Sotik, on the Athi Plains, and along the Northern
Guaso Nyiro. Everywhere it was a beast of the dry, open
468 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
plains— both those that were bare of everything except grass,
and those that were covered with a thin growth of scrub
and dotted with clumps of thorn-trees. We have seen it in
the edges of forest. Its ordinary gaits are a walk and a
slashing trot. If not pressed hard this trot does not tire
the animal, and it will go for many miles. When closely
pressed or much alarmed it breaks into a gallop. A heavy
old bull cannot keep up this gallop for a mile without ex-
haustion; but the cows, the lighter bulls, and the young
animals run hard, although not as fast as the smaller an-
telopes. Of all African game eland are the easiest to ride
down on horseback. We have rounded up a herd quite
as easily as we could round up old-style Texan cattle.
It has one characteristic seemingly inconsistent with its
great size and lack of speed, and that is its extraordinary power
of leaping. When startled, and beginning a run, the huge
cows, and even the bulls, bound like gazelles, leaping clear
over one another's backs. It is extraordinary to see such
bulky, heavy-bodied creatures spring with such goat-like
agility. It would seem that the mechanical reasons which
make the trot their natural gait, and make their gallop
slower and more tiring than the gallop of the oryx or harte-
beest, would also limit their jumping powers; but such is
not the case. They are heavier-bodied than the moose or
wapiti, with huge necks and barrels, and pendent dewlaps
and wrinkled neck skin; yet, for a few seconds after starting,
they make high jumps of a type which wapiti rarely, and
moose never, attempt. The wapiti, however, although their
normal gait is also the trot, and although heavy wapiti bulls
are speedily exhausted by a hard gallop, at least sometimes
run faster than running blacktail deer — we have seen this
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 469
ourselves — whereas the eland is at once left behind by fright-
ened oryx or hartebeest — as we have, also, ourselves seen.
The moose is even more of a trotter than either eland or
wapiti. Young moose will occasionally gallop, not only
when frightened, but even when at play; but the old animals
practically never break their trot, except that, as we have
been informed by entirely trustworthy hunters, when sud-
denly and greatly startled they may plunge forward for a few
rods in a kind of rolling run. We ourselves once saw the
tracks where a big (although perhaps not quite full-grown)
moose had thus plunged for a few jumps at a gallop. These
very big and heavy species of antelope and deer evidently find
the trot, and not the gallop, their natural-speed gait, whereas
the smaller deer and antelope find the gallop equally natural
— although the gerunuk trots fast and the Rocky Mountain
blacktail proceeds by buck-jumps. The big zebra trots much
more freely than the small zebra. From these examples it
would seem natural to lay down the rule that increase in
size and bulk tends to make the trot mechanically prefera-
ble to the canter and gallop. But this does not apply to
cattle: bison and buffalo, unlike eland and moose, always
gallop when at speed; and the giraffe, which is bigger and
heavier than any of the pure trotters, never trots at all,
passing immediately from a walk to a canter or gallop. It
all illustrates anew how limited our knowledge really is, and
how cautious we must be in dogmatizing, or in glibly advanc-
ing explanation theories of universal applicability.
The flesh of the eland is good, perhaps better than that
of any other antelope; although personally we sometimes
thought Tommy and reedbuck equalled it. We do not think
the flesh of African antelopes as good eating as the venison
470 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of wapiti, deer, prongbuck, and mountain-sheep; but it is
hard to dogmatize in such matters, for much depends on the
cooking, the cHmate, and the surroundings. The eland is
by preference a grass-eater, and is usually fat, which makes
him a godsend in the African land of lean animals. We also
found eland eating aloe leaves. When the country is so
parched that the eland's food consists of dry leaves from the
thorn-trees, the flesh is poor and tasteless.
On the whole, eland are warier than any other antelope.
They are soft-bodied, and are disabled by a wound which
would not cripple one of the smaller antelope or an American
deer. So many trustworthy observers report that African
antelope are tougher than the deer of the northlands that we
suppose they must be right; in our own experience it hap-
pened that we were not able to discern any difference be-
tween them.
We found eland in herds of from half a dozen to forty
or fifty individuals, the two or three big bulls looming above
the cows and young stock. We also occasionally came on
bulls singly or in pairs. The very old bulls, called blue bulls
because the hide shows through the thin hair, were usually
solitary. They are so big and dark that we have known an
entire safari mistake one for a rhino when seen a little way
off in thin bush. Although so big, eland are less pugnacious
than any other big antelope; why the eland, and to a less
extent the koodoo, are so mild-tempered, when their small
kinsfolk, the bushbucks, are such ferocious fighters, it is im-
possible to say. Eland are easily tamed. Our own govern-
ment should make a business of importing, taming, and train-
ing them; and the African governments should do so at
once. In a few generations they would be completely domes-
SOUTH AFRICAN ELAND, MALE
Showing absence of body stripes and white chevrons on snout
EAST AFRICAN ELAND, MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Loita Plains
Mounted by J. L. Clark
THE SOUTH AND EAST AFRICAN RACES OF THE ELAND
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 471
ticated ; they would give excellent food ; they could be used
as draught-animals; and lack of water and the dire fly-
borne cattle diseases of Africa would have no terror for them.
They would be a great addition to the world's stock of
domestic animals.
Where we came across eland they were drinking every
twenty-four hours. But there seems to be no reason to
doubt the fact that in certain desert regions eland, like
giraffe and oryx, go many months without water. How this
is possible for so huge and fat a beast, in a climate of such
intolerable dryness and heat, we cannot imagine. No prob-
lem is better worth the study of competent field naturalists.
The eland, like the roan- antelope, and the full-grown
buck Grant gazelle, possesses a coat which harmonizes
well with the general hue of the landscape in which it dwells.
It lacks the bold face markings of the roan, and the face
markings and body stripes of the oryx, and therefore, in
spite of its size, is perhaps a trifle less conspicuous than either.
The thin stripes on its coat have not the slightest effect in
either concealing or revealing it; seen sidewise, its body is
neither more nor less conspicuous than the unstriped body
of a roan antelope. On a bare plain or when coming to
water all these and all other big antelope are conspicuous.
In gray, dry thorn scrub the eland is sometimes hard to make
out from a distance, if it is not switching its tail. But, as a
matter of fact, it rarely stands still for any length of time
without switching its tail; the only elands we ever saw in
what might be called forest, revealed themselves to us when a
hundred yards off by the switching of their tails. We doubt
whether the eland's color is of even the smallest use to it as
against its natural foes. As wild dogs always hunt purely by
472 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
scent and leopards only occasionally kill an eland calf, the lion
is the only foe that need be considered. On the rare occasions
when lions hunt by day they do sometimes use their eyes.
Governor Jackson has described a party of lions hunting
eland by sight. But, unless wounded, the eland, though far
less conspicuous in color than zebra, hartebeest, or wilde-
beest, and even than oryx or roan, makes no more effort to
hide than any one of these, its constant companions. It
never crouches or slinks, or seeks to take advantage of cover
like a bushbuck or oribi. A herd rests like cattle, lying down
or standing; and always there is some little play of ears or
tail, sufficient to insure the attention of any beast of prey
which is on the lookout in the neighborhood. Moreover, the
elands lie down or stand resting during the heat of the day,
when no beast of prey is abroad. In the morning and after-
noon they are feeding; they then make no effort to hide, and
are sure to be seen by any watchful foe which is trusting to
its eyes for success. Ordinarily lion trust far more to nose
than eyes, until close up, when the shade or markings of the
coat becomes utterly unimportant. At night, especially on
the very dark nights when the lion is boldest, probably his
sense of smell is his only guide until he makes his final rush;
and, in any event, on such a night all colors seem alike.
Therefore, although the eland's coloring, like that of the wild
ass or male Grant gazelle, is probably more concealing than
that of any of the other antelopes or of the zebras, it has no
effect whatever on the animal's habits, and probably in actual
practice is of no consequence to it, one way or the other, as
regards its foes. At any rate, the coloration is not a factor
of survival value. The stripes, which closet theorists have
treated as of concealing value in the eland, are of no con-
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 473
cealing value whatever. They are probably gradually dis-
appearing; they diminish the farther the animals are found
from the probable original centre of development in the Middle
African forests; and in the form farthest from this, the South
African form, which has certainly been the last to be dif-
ferentiated, the stripes have completely disappeared. This
of course means that they have no concealing value such
as to make them in even the slightest degree a factor
in securing through natural selection the survival of the
wearer under the conditions of the existing environment.
The eland is certainly less plentiful than the other antelopes
which possess a more advertising coloration; and it is more
shy, and, instead of seeking to elude observation, prefers to
station itself where it can detect its foes at a distance and
run off. If the color of its coat were of benefit to it, it would
certainly act so as to get that benefit, and this it never does.
Evidently its coloration is an entirely negligible factor so far
as its survival is concerned.
The East African race differs very little from livingstonii
of the Zambesi Valley. It may be distinguished usually by
darker coloration and longer head, but the difference is
merely an average affair. The race was based by Lydekker
upon a specimen showing white chevrons on the snout and
a narrow bush on the forehead. These characters are, how-
ever, juvenile, and are as prevalent in the immature eland
of Mashonaland as they are in British East Africa. The old
males in East Africa have the entire forehead covered with
a heavy mat of hair and lack the white chevrons bordering
the mat on the snout, as do also the old males from the Zam-
besi. Two bulls shot from the same herd on the Loita
Plains by Colonel Roosevelt show both styles of coloration.
The younger bull, which was a fully grown animal, had the
narrow bush of hair on the forehead and white chevrons on
the snout, while the aged bull of the same body size had the
474 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
entire forehead covered by a heavy mat of long hair, with-
out any chevrons on the snout. Old bulls of both races
retain a few of the body stripes even in old age. The black
stripe on the chest and belly of patter sonianus is usually lack-
ing in livingstonii. Specimens of the South African eland
from the Kalahari Desert and Cape Colony, however, lack
the body stripes even in immaturity in males, as is well
shown by specimens in the National Museum. The skulls
from East Africa exceed in length those from the Zambesi,
but are less in breadth. We may describe pattersonianus as
a longer and more slender-headed race with darker-colored
mane and body.
The body color of an old male is usually ochraceous-buff ,
the hair often being so thin that the dark skin shows con-
spicuously and gives it a bluish-gray appearance. The body
is crossed by two or three faint white transverse stripes. The
nape of neck is covered by a broad mane of long wood-
brown hair extending half-way down the sides and ending
at the withers in a stripe which is continued on the back to
the rump. The tail is thin-haired and is buff above and
white below, with a tuft of long black hair at the tip. The
under-parts have a broad seal-brown stripe from the chest
to the middle of the belly. The belly and the sides of the
body are light buff. The forelegs are ochraceous-buff in front,
and white behind, with a broad black bar above and behind
the knee. The border of the hoofs and the back of the pas-
terns are seal-brown. The hind legs are like the fore in color
but lack the black band above the knee on the posterior side.
The forehead is covered by an immense bush of thick hair,
three inches in length and cinnamon-brown in color, bounded
behind and above the eye by a black stripe and in front on the
snout by buffy bases to the hair. The snout is seal-brown to
the lips. The upper lips and chin are whitish and the chin is
bordered behind by an indistinct drab bar. The sides of the
head and the orbital region are buffy-drab. The ears on the
back are buff, the tips seal-brown, and the inside and the base
whitish. The base of the throat has a dewlap or bell covered
by a short mane of ochraceous hair. Younger males lack the
bush on the head, which is usually represented by a median tuft
of long hair bounded in front by white chevrons ; the nape mane
is also greatly reduced in extent and confined to a narrow line
MAP 18 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE ELAND
1 Taurotragus oryx pattersonianus
475
476 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
and the body color is more reddish. The body stripes are
more numerous and distinct and the dark stripe on the
belly and above the knee is more pronounced. Often the
snout is marked by conspicuous white chevrons extending
diagonally in front of the eyes. The adult female is like the
immature male in color, but usually brighter. The body
color is ochraceous-orange crossed by twelve white stripes
extending from the very distinct black dorsal stripe half-way
down on the sides. The under-parts and the belly are marked
as in the male. The nape mane is reduced to a narrow line
of wood-brown hair which merges on the withers into the
broad black dorsal stripe. The forehead is without a mat
of long hair or white chevron stripes, and the snout is
buffy-drab, not blackish as in the male. The throat has
a well-developed dewlap covered by long blackish and buffy
hairs. Newly born young have the color pattern of the adult
female minutely reproduced, and are furnished with a dew-
lap on the throat. The snout has a dark blotch as in the
male.
Flesh measurements of the Zambesi eland are not avail-
able for comparison, but, judging by the size of the skulls, the
East African race is fully as large as the southern one. The
flesh measurements of a large bull shot by Colonel Roosevelt
on the Loita Plains were: head and body along curve of back,
io6 inches; tail, 32 inches; hind foot, 29 inches; ear, io><
inches. An adult female measures 4 inches less in body,
I inch less in length of tail, i>^ inches less in hind foot, and 3^
inch less in length of ear. The largest male in the National
Museum has a skull length of I9>^ inches. The average
skull in a series of twelve is 18 inches in length, and 8 inches
in greatest breadth. The female skulls average 17 inches
in length. The horns in the male are very much heavier
or greater in diameter than in the female, but they do not
average any longer. The longest-horned specimen in a series
of eight from British East Africa in the National Museum is
273^ inches straight or 35 inches measured on the curve. The
average horn length in the male is 25 inches. All old males
have the tips of the horns greatly worn, and shorter by almost
a foot than those of the younger males. Ward's record for
East Africa is a specimen shot by Jackson measuring 31^
inches straight. The spread at the tips is usually about 12
BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 477
inches, but the horn direction varies greatly, and specimens
exceeding i8 inches in spread sometimes occur.
The eland are to a considerable extent local in distribu-
tion, but they inhabit widely different sorts of country, from
dry desert bush to moist highland meadows. In East
Africa they have been found in the low desert district near
the Taita Hills by Jackson. Selous has found skulls as far
north as the Lorian swamp in the midst of the northern
desert. These no doubt represent the skulls of eland which
have strayed down the Northern Guaso Nyiro River from
its headwaters on the Laikipia Plateau and perished in
the desert, as they are not known on the lower reaches of
the river. In the Nile Valley they reach the east bank of the
Nile, and are there only separated by the river from the
territory occupied by the giant eland. Lydekker has sug-
gested that in this region intermediate individuals might •
be looked for, which would bridge the gap existing between
the two species. Upon this point we can assure him that
the difference in skull structure and shape of ears and
horns are of too fundamental a character to permit such an f
assumption. The region east of the Soudan station of /
Mongolia in 6° north latitude marks the extreme northern
limit of the East African eland in Africa.
CHAPTER XVI
THE WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS
Subfamily Kobince
The members of the Kobince cover a wide range in body-
size, from the large, stately waterbucks to the small rock
reedbucks. The group includes the waterbucks, lechwis,
kobs, reedbucks, and rock reedbucks and is characterized
by low withers, absence of the anteorbital gland, and the
presence of horns in the male only. The horns are usually
curved forward and ringed for the greater part of their
length. The skull is without anteorbital fossa but shows a
large lachrymal-nasal sinus on the sides of the snout. The
range of the subfamily covers the continent of Africa from
the Cape region northward to the southern edge of the
Sahara Desert in the Senegal, Lake Chad, and Abyssinian
regions. This subfamily has been usually known among
naturalists as the Cervicaprincs ; but, owing to the genus
Cervicapra having been found untenable, the genus Kohus,
being the best known and most typical, has been selected
as the type.
Key to the Genera
Horns sweeping backward and upward or with tips curved forward
Tail short and bushy; body size small; horns short and sharply
hooked forward jV
all; orbit, u\
Horns shorter than head; lachrymal-nasal sinus small; orbit. \)
large Oreodorcas
Horns longer than head; lachrymal-nasal sinus large; orbit
small Redunca
Tail long and tufted; size large; horns slightly curved forward,
greatly exceeding the head in length Kobus
478
1
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 479
Horns S-shaped, bowed forward at the base and then recurved at the
tips
Back of pasterns haired; hoofs short; snout slender; horns shorter
and narrower; tail short, not reaching hocks, without hXr^
tuft; ears longer Adenota
Back of pasterns hairless; hoofs long; snout short and bulging;
horns longer, broadly lyrate; tail long, reaching hocks,
tufted at tip; ears shorter Onotragus
Rock Reedbucks
Oreodorcas
Oreodorcas Heller, 191 2, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 50, No. 8, p. 13; type
species Redunca Julvornfula.
The rock reedbuck shows no striking external differences
from the true reedbucks with the exception of the much
shorter horns, the drab body color and the more bushy-
tail. The genus is based chiefly on the skull differences
which consist of smaller lachrymal-nasal sinus, larger orbit,
and the smaller size of the sphenoidal processes of the basi-
occipital bone. Oreodorcas has habits strikingly different
from the swamp or plains haunting reedbuck. It dwells
upon rocky hillsides and mountain slopes on the edge of
the plains country, in close proximity to the haunts of the
klipspringer. The genus includes a single species, fulvo-
rufula, which covers a wide range of country in the eastern
portion of Africa extending from Cape Colony north to
southern Abyssinia. Over this region it exhibits some geo-
graphic variation which has given rise to the recognition of
several races.
Chanler Rock Reedbuck
Oreodorcas fulvorufula chanleri
Native Names: Kikuyu, katabidi; Wakamba, ndabidi.
Cervicapra chanleri Rothschild, 1895, Nov. Zool., p. 53.
Range. — British East Africa from the German border
northward to southern Abyssinia in the Rift Valley and
higher parts of the coast drainage areas.
480 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
During his explorations in British East Africa in 1893
Chanler secured the type specimen of the species which
now bears his name. The type specimen was shot on the
slopes of the Jombene Range, northeast of Mount Kenia in
the Tana River drainage area. Upon its arrival in London
at Rowland Ward's establishment, it was recognized as a
new antelope and described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild
before being sent to the United States National Museum.
These delicate and graceful kinsfolk of the reedbuck
were found among the stony hills and small mountains in
many parts of East Africa. Usually we found the does and
fawns in couples or small parties, and the bucks singly.
They were shy and elusive, but not wary in the sense that
the bigger antelopes were wary. They lived on the steep
slopes, among rocks and bush, and fed on the grass, the hill
plants, and the leaves and twig tops of certain of the
shrubs, and if frightened fled in frantic haste to the thickest
cover, on the roughest ground. When alarmed a buck will
occasionally utter a sharp whistle to warn its companions.
The East African race differs but little from the typical
race of South Africa. It is distinguishable by its lighter
and grayer color, showing little of the reddish tint seen in
true fulvorufula; and also by the smaller body size and
shorter horns. The dark streak on the snout which was
used by the original describer as a character is a variable
feature. In a series of twelve skins from British East
Africa in the National Museum only six show a dark nose
stripe, and in only two of these is it well marked. Oscar
Neumann described the Abyssinian race as new in 1902,
basing his difference principally upon the absence of the
dark streak on the snout in his specimens from Lake Abaya,
Abyssinia. This, however, has been shown to be a character
of no value in chanleri. Specimens from Abyssinia examined
at the British Museum showed no color or skull differences
from British East African specimens by which they could be
distinguished.
MAP 19 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE ROCK
REEDBUCK
1 Oreodorcas Julvorufula chanleri
481
482 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The head and neck are ochraceous and distinctly different
in color from the drab-gray body. The body is suffused
Hghtly by buffy-tipped hairs, but the rump and hind
quarters are paler drab-gray. The hind legs are decidedly
lighter than the body, being cartridge-buff in color. The
forelegs are drab-gray in front and pale olive-gray behind,
with buff pasterns. The under-parts are white, sharply de-
fined on the sides, but less so on the inside of the legs and on
the lower throat. The tail is drab-olive, the tip, sides, and
under-surface clothed by long, white hairs. The head and
fore neck are bright ochraceous, and the nose near the tip
has a slightly darker hair-brown median streak. There is
an ill-defined whitish area above the eye. The upper throat,
chin, and lips are white. The ear on the back is ochraceous,
and the inside and base are white. There is a large dark bare
spot below the ear. The sexes are alike in color. Nursing
young are quite identical to adults in color, the body being
perhaps slightly grayer and decidedly longer-haired.
The female equals or perhaps exceeds slightly the male
in size, the largest skull in a series of fifteen being that of
a female. The measurements of a large male in the flesh
were: head and body, 45 inches; tail, S}i inches; hind foot,
133/^ inches; ear, ^^4 inches. The greatest length of the
skull is : male, 9 inches ; female, 9 iV inches. Longest horns in
a series of seven are 5^ inches measured along the curve, s}i
inches spread at the tips.
Specimens have been examined from the Athi Plains
taken on Wami Hill, the Ulukenia Hills, and Kilima Kui;
from the Loita Plains, from Lake Elmentaita, from the
Northern Guaso Nyiro near the Ngare Ndare branch, and
from southern Abyssinia.
Reedbuck
Redunca
Redunca H. Smith, 1827, Griffith's Cuvier Animal Kingdom, V, p. 337;
type Antilope redunca Pallas.
The well-known genus Cervicapra, by which the reed-
bucks have long been known, has been recently replaced
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 483
by Redunca. The genus Cervicapra founded by Sparrman
in 1780 was based upon Antilope cervicapra^ the common
black buck of India. Smith a half century later founded
the genus Redu7ica for the African reedbucks, basing it upon
Pallas's description of the Senegal species, A7itilope redtmca,
and this term must now be employed for designating the
genus instead of the more familiar term Cervicapra^ which
applies only to the Indian black buck.
The dorsal coloration is uniform yellowish, but the legs in
some races have a dark stripe in front. The size is medium,
the height at the withers not exceeding three feet, and the
tail is short and bushy. The short horns are curved forward
sharply, and are ringed for at least half their length. The
false hoofs are well developed. There is a rounded bare
spot below the ear on the side of the head. The reedbuck
is most closely allied to the rock reedbuck, but differs from it
externally by much longer and more strongly hooked horns,
by the shorter-haired tail, and larger body size. The sexes
show some slight color differences, the female being marked
by a dark blackish crown-patch which is absent in the adult
male but present in the immature. The female almost
equals the male in size, the difference in size of skulls being
very little. The nursing young are longer-haired and much
darker than the adults, being a uniform olive-drab grizzled
by blackish on the upper parts with the dark leg stripes
only present on the front of the pasterns, and the bare spot
below the ear indicated by a growth of short white hair.
The skull exhibits in comparison with Oreodorcas much
larger nasal-lachrymal sinus and sphenoidal processes to the
basioccipital, a longer snout having premaxillary bones
which do not reach the nasals, and a smaller orbit. Two
species are included in the genus; a large fulvous one,
arundinum, inhabiting South Africa, and a smaller yel-
lower species, redujica, inhabiting equatorial Africa. Reed-
bucks range from Cape Colony northward through the
East Coast drainage area to the Zambesi, where it spreads
west to Angola and thence north throughout the whole
extent of the continent as far as the southern borders of the
Sahara Desert in Senegal, the Nile region, and northern
Abyssinia. The only fossil species known is from the Pleis-
tocene of Algeria.
484 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The pretty reedbuck, which is about the size of a white-
tail deer, was plentiful in the Uasin Gishu and in Uganda.
It was strictly a beast of cover, and unlike all the water-
buck and their allies it was not gregarious, being found
singly or in couples — usually a doe and her fawn, more
rarely a buck and a doe. Like the oribi and klipspringer it
utters a shrill whistle of alarm or curiosity, totally distinct
from the whistle of either of the others. In Uganda the
reedbuck were not wary, and in certain places were so plen-
tiful that on a given flat of tall grass we might find a score
or two in fairly close proximity, so that they looked almost
like a herd, scattered out to feed; but when alarmed each
went its own way without regard to the others. They were
grass feeders, and their flesh was excellent. They were
never found far from water; in no case that we happened
to come across were they more than three or four miles
from a stream or pond. They lived in grass, and in patches
of bush or reeds. In the daytime we usually came on them
lying up in the reed beds or in hollows among the tall grass,
so that they offered rather hard running shots or very long
standing shots. Favorite resting-places in the Loita Plains
district, were the deserted grass-grown Masai kraals from
which they were on several occasions routed. When dis-
turbed they usually bounded gracefully over the walls of
the kraal and sought cover in the nearest reed bed. Often,
however, we saw them feeding in the morning or afternoon,
and then they were not very difficult to approach. When
hiding they would often let us get to within a few feet of
them before making a headlong rush through the reeds or
grass. When put up by a line of beaters they would either
run while the beaters were still a long way off, or else wait
SOUTH AFRICAN REEDBUCK
In the New York Zoological Park
SWAHILI REEDBUCK
Shot by Dr. L. W. Abbott
Taveta Kilimanjaro, B. K. A.
United States National Museum
CHANLER ROCK REEDBUCK
Shot by William A. Chanler
Jombene Mountains, B. E. A.
United States National Museum
REEDBUCK
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 485
until nearly trodden on. Occasionally reedbuck, like bush-
buck, lie up for the day in patches of brush or reeds con-
taining lions or hyenas. We put a doe out of a clump of
reeds from which we also put out and killed two hyenas.
Another pair were driven from a reed bed, an acre or two
in area, from precisely the same part of which a big, maned
lion was driven a few seconds afterward. Evidently the
reedbuck in such cover feel confident that they can detect
and avoid any hostile approach of their neighbors. We
never heard of their lying in such cover in company with a
leopard.
Key to the Races of redunca
Dorsal color light, tawny-ochraceous lined with black; pelage long
Horns sharply hooked forward; color lighter wardi
Horns short and without pronounced forward hook; color darker
ugandcB
Dorsal color light, ochraceous-buff, without black lining; pelage short
Horns long and wide-spread, not hooked forward much cottoni
Horns short and narrow; hooked forward at a sharp angle tohi
Highland Reedbuck
Redunca redunca zvardi
Native Names: Masai, erongo; Luganda, njazza.
Cervicapra redunca wardi Thomas, 1900, Ann. i^ Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 304.
Range. — Highland region of British East Africa from
the German border north to the Turkwell River and from
the Victoria Nyanza east to the headwaters of the Athi
and Tana Rivers.
Oldfield Thomas described this race from specimens re-
ceived from Rowland Ward. The types were collected by
F. J. Jackson on the Mau Plateau, no doubt somewhere in
the vicinity of Eldoma Ravine Station.
486 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The highland reedbuck is a dark-colored race, with long
pelage and with short, sharply hooked forward horns. The
dorsal region is heavily lined by black-tipped hairs on a
tawny-ochraceous ground, the legs are marked in front
by a broad, ill-defined blackish band, and the under-parts
are white, sharply defined against the tawny of the dorsal
surface.
The measurements of an adult male in the flesh were:
head and body, 53 inches; tail, 7>^ inches; hind foot, i6>^
inches ; ear, 6 inches. Greatest length of largest skull : male,
io>< inches; female, 9^8 inches. The longest horns meas-
ure loX inches on the curve and 9^ inches in greatest
spread, in a series of nine males. The specimens examined
were collected in the Uasin Gishu Plateau, on the Mau
Escarpment at Molo, Lake Elmentaita, the Amala River
near the German border, the Athi Plains in the vicinity of
Nairobi, and from the Maanja River of central Uganda.
Nile Reedbuck
Redunca redunca cottoni
Native Names: Dinka, kao; Bari, bore.
Cervicapra redunca cottoni Rothschild, 1902, In Powell-Cotton's " Sporting
Trip Through Abyssinia," p. 470, two figures of skull and horns.
Range. — The Nile Valley from the Sobat River and
Bahr el Ghazal southward in Uganda as far as the Albert
Nyanza and the Victoria Nile.
The type of this race was collected by Major Powell-
Cotton in the lowlands of the Nile between the main river
and the branch known as the Bahr el Zeraf. It was de-
scribed in 1902 by Walter Rothschild in an appendix to
Powell-Cotton's "Sporting Trip Through Abyssinia," to-
gether with another race, do7ialdso?ii, from a point midway
between the head of Lake Rudolf and the Nile. The latter
race, however, is indistinguishable in horn shape and color-
ation, and must be regarded as a synonym of the race first
described.
The Nile reedbuck is readily distinguishable from other
equatorial races by its wide-spread horns. The horns spread
outward, the expanse usually exceeding the length, and the
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 487
tips are hooked forward but little. The coloration is light,
without the black lining so characteristic of wardi, the gen-
eral dorsal color being ochraceous-buff. The stripe extend-
ing down the front of the leg is pale, usually mouse-gray in
color. The horn dimensions of a large male shot at Nimule
are: length along curve ii3/^ inches, greatest spread 9 inches.
Another large male collected by Donaldson Smith between
Lake Rudolf and the Nile has longer and wider-spread
horns, the dimensions being \\y^ inches in length, and 15
inches in expanse.
SWAHILI ReEDBUCK
Redunca redunca tohi
Native Name: Swahili, tohi.
Redunca redunca tohi Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7, p. 10.
Range. — The moist coast belt from the Tana River
southward to Kilimanjaro and German East Africa, but not
occurring farther inland than the edge of the desert nyika.
The Swahili reedbuck is local in distribution and of rare
occurrence. It is found along the railway only at Maria-
kani, where the type and several other specimens were
secured in 191 2 by Heller. It occurred in this district in
the grassy valleys and hillsides in groups of three or four
consisting of an old female and two or three offspring of
various ages. No adult bucks were seen. Usually they
were found lying down in the long grass, and were not de-
tected until bounding away in great bounds over the grass.
Sometimes when startled they uttered their peculiar sharp
bark or bleat.
The Swahili reedbuck differs from wardi by smaller size;
the basal length of skull being only 9 inches. The colora-
tion is lighter and purer tawny, the black lining on the
dorsal surface being much less evident. The dark leg streaks
are much narrower or obsolete. The pelage is shorter and
thinner, the length on the back being only three-fourths
of an inch.
The color is tawny and purest on the sides and the legs,
the dorsal region being darkest owing to the prevalence of
black-tipped hairs, which are absent on the sides and the
limbs. The crown of the head is marked by a dusky-brown
488 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
patch between the ears and the midUne of the snout is
speckled by dusky. The sides of the head are pure yellow-
ochre, but the orbital area is lighter buff in color. The chin
and the upper throat are cream color. The back of the ear
is much darker than the body, the general effect being snuff-
brown, but the hair covering itself is tawny. The inner side
and the base of the ears including the bare spot are cream-
buff. The legs are ochraceous-buff with a narrow, dusky-
brown stripe in front from the hoofs to the shoulder on the
forelegs, but only reaching half-way to the hocks on the
hind legs. The tail is tawny above, and white below, with
the tip chiefly white. The under-parts are pure white, and
sharply defined on the sides against the tawny-ochraceous;
the white reaches as far forward as the chest, and also ex-
tends as a narrow line down the inside of the legs.
An adult female specimen measured in the flesh : 49 inches
in length of head and body; tail, 7K inches; hind foot, I5>^
inches; ear, 6 inches. Greatest length of skull, 9>4 inches.
Besides the specimens from the type locality, others have
been examined from Taveta, on the east slope of Kiliman-
jaro, collected by Doctor L. W. Abbott. Three of these
specimens are males, and exhibit short, narrow, and sharply
hooked horns, by which they are distinguishable from the
larger-horned wardi.
Ankole Reedbuck
Redunca redunca Uganda
Cervicapra bohor Uganda' Blaine, 1913, Jnn. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist., II, p. 291.
Range. — Highlands of Ankole, southwestern Uganda.
Mr. Gilbert Blaine has recently described from the
highlands of Ankole in southwest Uganda a new race of
reedbuck differing from zi>ardi by its shorter, less-hooked
horns, and darker and browner color. Specimens in the
National Museum, collected in central Uganda from the
Maanja River, are not distinguishable from wardi from
the Uasin Gishu Plateau either in color or horn shape. The
three males from the Maanja River have their horns sharply
hooked forward as in typical wardi. The form described as
ugandcs may be a local race confined to the Ankole highlands
while central and eastern Uganda is occupied by wardi.
MAP 20 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE REEDBUCK
1 Redunca reduiica tohi 2 Redunca redunca zvardi 3 Redu?:caredunca Uganda
4 Redunca redunca cottoni 5 Redunca redunca bohor
489
490 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Waterbucks
Kobus
Kobus A. Smith, 1840, Illus. Zoology S. Africa, pt. VII, pi. XXVI; type
K. ellipsiprymnus.
The waterbucks form a well-marked genus of large-
sized antelopes having long, heavily ringed horns sweeping
backward, with a slight forward curve at the extreme tips.
The withers are low and the body is covered by a coat of
long, coarse hair. In size and carriage they resemble the
European stag or the American elk, but in habits they
are more permanently gregarious and less forest-haunting.
They are approached closely in size within the subfamily
only by the lechwis from which they are at once distin-
guishable by the difference in horn shape, and the well-
haired nature of the feet, the back of the pasterns being
hairy. Waterbuck have a peculiar odor due to a glandular
excretion from the skin. The skull is distinguishable by
the flatness or depressed condition of the interorbital area,
the large, hypsodont teeth, and the large sinuses in front
of the orbit between the nasal bones and the lachrymal.
Several fossil species are known from the Pliocene of India,
China, and Algeria. The genus to-day occurs only in
Ethiopia, or Africa south of the Sahara. It is found from
Senegal and the Abyssinian highlands south throughout the
whole continent as far as the Limpopo River, but is un-
known in the Cape Colony proper. Two closely allied
species, separable only by coloration differences, are com-
prised in the genus.
Key to the Species of Kobus
Posterior surface of hind quarters white, in sharp contrast to the dark
coat; tail tuft and legs from knee and hocks blackish seal-
brown; coat often suffused with reddish; body size larger
defassa
Posterior surface of hind quarters marked on sides of rump by a wide,
white, elliptical-shaped stripe, connected below with the
white of the posterior surface of hind quarters but meeting
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 491
across the rump, completely encircling the tail; tail tuft and
legs not conspicuously darker brown than the body; body
size smaller, coat without reddish suffusion
ellipsiprymnus
The Defassa Waterbuck
Kobus defassa
The defassa waterbuck is a singularly graceful buck with
elk-like carriage and a long, rough coat of hair. It is some-
what larger than the common waterbuck which it resembles
closely in color, differing, however, by lacking the white
elliptical stripe on the sides of the rump, and by its darker
legs and more reddish body color. The sexes are very sim-
ilar in size, the female being scarcely inferior to the male.
The newly born young are without the distinctive white
patch on the posterior surface of the thighs, the brown of
the sides extending on to the hinder surface and merging with
the whitish color of the inner surface. The legs are lighter
than the body, not darker as in the adults. The defassa
breaks up into a great number of geographical races which
are distinguishable by slight differences in tone of colora-
tion. The earliest described race is the defassa named by
the Abyssinian explorer Riippell in 1840. Riippell described
it under its native Abyssinian name of defassa. Another
name which is often applied to this group is that of sing-sing
used by the natives of Gambia for the West African race of
the defassa. The typical defassa was met with by Riip-
pell in the Abyssinian highlands near the shores of Lake
Tana. It is one of the brightest-colored races, and has a
large amount of reddish in its coloration. The defassa as a
species is wide-spread throughout West and Central Africa,
but nowhere does it reach the East Coast, its eastern limits
being marked by the great Rift Valley, which extends from
the Red Sea to Lake Nyasa. West of the Rift Valley the
defassa ranges from the Abyssinian highlands and the south-
ern edge of the Sahara Desert south to Angola and the Zam-
besi Valley as far west as Lake Nyasa.
This stately, shaggy-coated creature is close kin to the
common waterbuck, differing chiefly in its white rump.
492 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
On the average we found its horns longer, but this may be
merely an accident of geography, for locality has much to
do with the size of an antelope's horns, no matter what the
species — and, extraordinary to say, the horns of one species,
say the impalla, may be less than the average size in a
region where the horns of another, as the waterbuck, may
be larger. It seems curious, inasmuch as so many African
antelope have short and even rather thin coats, to find these
marsh-loving, thicket-haunting waterbuck, dwelling right
under the equator, with coats as long and shaggy as those of
northern deer.
From Lake Naivasha westward we found the defassa;
and from the Nyanza Lakes it extended down the Nile to
the mouth of the Sobat. Everywhere the waterbucks were
gregarious, and, therefore, polygamous, a heavy bull ac-
companying each herd of cows and young. The exact
habitat in which they were found varied in rather astonish-
ing manner. Around Lake Naivasha their home was in
the dense papyrus beds which fringed the lake. The high,
close-growing stems of the huge reeds formed a well-nigh
impenetrable cover, save where the waterbuck had trodden
out their trails. These made a network, a labyrinth which
extended almost, but not quite, to the lake's edge, meeting
and being crossed by the broader hippo trails which, of
course, did go down to — or rather come up from — the
water's edge. When alarmed the herds at once fled to the
papyrus for protection, and loud was the noise as they
crashed and crowded along the trails, splashing through the
mud and water while the dead stalks cracked and popped.
These reeds were merely their refuge and resting-place, and
held no food for them. They fed outside them, grazing in
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 493
the wet meadows, and in the glades among the masses of
vine-draped trees and bushes. They fed at all hours of the
day and night. We saw a small party of cows feeding on
an absolutely treeless stretch of wet meadow at noon. We
found a herd feeding in the glades among thick clusters of
trees in mid-forenoon, and another herd in the mid-after-
noon. We also found them grazing by moonlight.
In the Lado we did not find the waterbuck in the papy-
rus, but out among the thin groves of scantily leaved acacias,
often many miles away from the Nile or from any water
save small ponds, in practically the same localities fre-
quented by the Nile hartebeests. Indeed, we often found
the species together. When alarmed these waterbuck sim-
ply galloped off among the thickets, not heading for the reed
beds, even if these were near by. In the Uasin Gishu coun-
try also we often found the Jackson hartebeest and the
waterbuck in the same country, and even in the same herd;
for the hartebeests occasionally ventured into the fairly
thick brush, dotted with trees, which came just outside the
belt of dense timber which fringed the river haunts of the
waterbuck; while the waterbuck occasionally ventured far
out on the open, grassy plains, into the ordinary haunts of
the hartebeest. As a rule, however, the two species kept
separate, although their habitats overlapped on the edges.
We once shot a hartebeest bull from the top of an ant heap;
and a waterbuck cow with her calf continued to lie under
one of the many surrounding bushes for some minutes. It
would be quite impossible to say, from our experience,
which of the two species was the wariest. We found in one
place, or at one time, the waterbuck shyer than the harte-
beest; and in another place, or at another time, the harte-
494 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
beests were the more wary. We found waterbuck cows
with calves so young that they had not yet joined the herd,
on the Northern Guaso Nyiro in September, in the Uasin
Gishu in November, and in the Lado in January; we beheve
that there is no regular breeding time.
The heavy bulls will not tolerate the presence of young
bulls with the herds, forcing them out, to form bachelor
groups of their own. The master bulls fight fiercely among
themselves, and when at bay, especially if standing in a pool
of water, are formidable antagonists to dogs. They are not,
however, by any means as dangerous as sable, roan, oryx, or
wildebeest. Against the lion, next to man their greatest
enemy, they can make no eff^ectual resistance.
Key to the Races of dejassa
Pelage long and heavy-
Body color reddish, cinnamon-rufous dejassa
Body color darker brown with little rufous in the coat
Body color cinnamon-drab, the nape and crown of head rufous
nzoice
Body color hair-brown or dusky-drab
Snout black as far as the interorbital region; body color
not suffused with cinnamon tjaderi
Snout black only on anterior half; body color suffused
with cinnamon raineyi
Pelage short and thin
Body color reddish, cinnamon-drab matschiei
Body color drab or hair-brown
Body size smaller, horns shorter harnieri
Body size larger, horns longer Uganda
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 495
Nile Defassa Waterbuck
Kobus defassa harnieri
Native Names: Dlnka, katambur; Bongo, boohoo; Bari, babu.
Kobus harnieri Murie, 1867, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 3; colored figure and two
text figures.
Range. — White Nile district east to the foot of the
Abyssinian highlands, south as far as the Albert Nyanza and
westward throughout the Bahr-el-Ghazal watershed.
Doctor Murie in a communication to the Zoological
Society in 1867, concerning the travels of Baron Wilhelm
von Harnier on the White Nile, quotes Kaup as the authority
for the present race, based upon the two heads presented by
Harnier to the Darmstadt Museum. We have, however,
no further published record of Kaup's name for which
Murie must now stand as the only authority. Harnier lost
his life in the upper Nile district in attempting to rescue his
native gun-bearer from the charge of a wounded buffalo. At
the time of this catastrophe he was shooting near a Catho-
lic mission station some distance south of Shambe between
6° and 7° N. latitude, and it was from this locality presum-
ably that the waterbuck named for him were obtained.
The Nile race of the defassa may be distinguished by its
short thin coat of hair, by the drab or hair-brown colora-
tion which is without cinnamon suffusion on the body, and
by its smaller body size and horns. It closely resembles
the Uganda defassa, in color and shortness of coat, but may
be recognized by its smaller body and shorter horns. The
typical race from Abyssinia has a decidedly cinnamon or
even rufous tinge to its coloration and has much longer and
more abundant hair. A newly born young secured at
Rhino Camp is covered with woolly hair, rather short and
thick, of a uniform dusky-drab, but darker on the breast
and the throat. The white patch on the hinder surface of the
hind quarters is not evident, owing to the brown of the sides
spreading over this area and merging with the grayish-white
of the inner surface and belly. The legs are slightly lighter
than the sides. The markings on the head and the neck
resemble those of the adult, but the dark snout patch is re-
stricted to a spot near the muzzle.
496 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Specimens of this race have been examined from Rhino
Camp, Lado Enclave, and Gondokoro, Uganda. They are
universally distributed in the vicinity of water and have
been met with by every sportsman who has visited the
upper Nile. Sir Samuel Baker, Von Heuglin, and Schwein-
furth were some of the first to record the occurrence of the
waterbuck in the Soudan.
No flesh measurements are available of specimens. The
largest skull examined is i^^s inches in length, which would
indicate a somewhat smaller body size than the Uganda
race in which the skulls are usually i6 inches in length.
The longest horns recorded by Ward are a pair 33}4 inches
in length from the Bahr el Ghazal collected by Mr. A. L.
Butler, the game warden of the Soudan. Average horns,
however, are very much smaller, 25 inches being a good
adult size. The longest-horned waterbuck collected by the
Smithsonian African expedition was one of this race shot
by Colonel Roosevelt, near Rhino Camp, which measured
30 inches.
Uganda Defassa Waterbuck
Kohus defassa ugandce
Native Name: Luganda, nsama.
Kobus unctuosus Uganda Neumann, 1905, Sitz. Ber. Ges. Nat. Freund.
Berl., p. 92.
Range. — From the western base of Mount Elgon west-
ward throughout Uganda to the Semliki Valley north as
far as the limits of the Victoria Nile drainage and south to
Lake Kivu.
The Uganda defassa was described by Herr Neumann in
1905 from specimens shot on the Maanja River in central
Uganda. Speke and Grant met with this antelope in
Uganda and brought home with them two heads which were
referred by Sclater to the sing-sing defassa of Gambia. At
that time the preserved specimens of waterbuck were so few
in number that the slight color differences now used to dis-
tinguish the geographical races had not been detected.
The defassa inhabiting Uganda and the Semliki Valley is
a short and thin haired race like the Nile defassa, from which
it is distinguishable by its larger body size and much longer
horns. The color differences with the latter are slight, the
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 497
color averaging somewhat darker. From the 'Nzoia defassa
the Uganda race is readily distinguishable by its short pel-
age and absence of cinnamon sulTusion to tiic body colora-
tion, as well as by its hunger and more widely spread horns.
Dimensions of specimens in the Hesh are not available
for comparison, but those of the horns and skulls are abun-
dantly recorded. Skulls of old adults usually measure six-
teen inches in greatest length. The longest horns, as well
as those showing the greatest spread, recorded by Ward are
a pair shot by A. F. ji. Wollaston near Lake Albert Edward.
This pair has a length on the front curve of 36^ inches
with a spread of 36 inches. Several other heads of almost
equal dimensions are recorded from the same general local-
ity by Ward. The direction of the horns laterally, or the
amount of spread, varies greatly from specimens In which
it exceeds the length to ones having a spread only half the
length. As a rule, however, the horns are remarkably wide-
spread and exceed the horns of other races in this respect.
Rudolf Defassa Waterbuck
Kobus defassa matschiei
Kohus unctuosus matschiei Neumann, 1905, Sitz. Ber. Ges. Nat. Freund.
Bcrl., p. 92.
Range. — Northern shores of Lake Rudolf north through
the Rift Valley of southern Abyssinia as far as Lake Zwai.
The defassa from the Lake Rudolf region and the Rift
Valley of southern Abyssinia has been named for Doctor
Paul Matschle by Herr Neumann from specimens which
he shot at Lake Abaya during his journey across Abyssinia
to the Sobat River in 1899. Some years earlier, Donald-
son Smith reported waterbuck on the north shore of Lake
Stephanie, and about the same time A. 11. Neumann met
with this race of the defassa on the northeast shore of Lake
Rudolf while elephant shooting. The race is distinguish-
able from, the ty[)Ical defassa of the highlands of Abyssinia
by its more grayish or drab coloration and by its much
shorter and thinner pelage, in which respect it approaches
the Nile defassa. It can, however, be distinguished from
the latter by its more cinnamon coloration. Judging by the
498 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
size of the skull, it is smaller than the races to the south of
it in British territory. No measurements of the horns or
body are recorded.
'NzoiA Defassa Waterbuck
Kobus defassa nzoice
Native Names: Karamojo, ecoria; Kamasia, kisomere; Kavlrondo (Jaulo),
irigut.
Kobus defassa nzoia: Matschic, 1910, Sitz. Ber. Ges. Nat. Freund. Berl.,
p. 417.
Range. — From the eastern edge of the Mau Escarp-
ment westward to Mount Elgon and northward to the high-
lands west of Lake Rudolf.
Doctor Matschie, the describer of innumerable races of
antelopes from East Africa, named the present race from a
specimen shot by Major Powell-Cotton on the Uasin Gishu
Plateau. Jackson was perhaps the first sportsman to meet
with this race. He records it as abundant as far north as
the Turkwell River drainage. The 'Nzoia defassa is a hand-
some race with an abundance of long cinnamon-rufous
hair in the coat. It is the reddest of all the East African
races and has the heaviest coat of hair. Overlying the
reddish hair is a heavy black Hning of dark-tipped hair.
The forehead and the sides of the snout are usually bright
rufous and the nape of the neck is strongly suffused by
cinnamon-rufous. The horns are much shorter than those
of ugandcE and are more parallel in outline, seldom showing
the great divergence at the tips exhibited by that race.
A fully adult male from the Uasin Gishu Plateau meas-
ured in the flesh: 84 inches in length of head and body; tail,
I5>^ inches; hind foot, 22 inches; ear, 8 inches. The horns
of the largest male in a series of four are 26^ inches in
length by 16 inches in spread.
Rainey Defassa Waterbuck
Kobus defassa raineyi
Kobus defassa raineyi Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 13, p. 5.
Range. — Southeastern drainage of the Victoria Nyanza
from the headwaters of the Amala River in British East
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 499
Africa southward across the German border to central
German East Africa.
The present race has recently been described from speci-
mens shot by Paul J. Rainey on the headwaters of the
Amala River near the German border of British East Africa.
It is a large race, exceeding in body size that of any other in
British East Africa. The coloration is nearest tjaderi of
Laikipia, but differs by its more reddish body coloration and
more restricted black snout patch which ends in front of
the interorbital region. It is distinguishable from nwics by
larger body size, narrower skull, and the absence of strong
rufous suffusion on the nape.
The body is cinnamon-drab in effect, the color being
made up of a mixture of cinnamon hair with black tips inter-
spersed sparingly with white hairs, the black tone due to
black-tipped hairs which give a dark cast to the whole colora-
tion. The back is darkest, the sides being lighter, and more
grayish, and the breast fuscous-brown without cinnamon
vermiculation. The belly and the posterior surface of the
hind quarters are white, the latter in sharp contrast to the
dark back and sides. The tail is darker than the back and is
seal-brown without cinnamon mixture, but the narrow streak
on the under side is whitish to within a few inches of the tip.
The legs from the knees and the hock downward are uniform
dark seal-brown with a fringe of whitish hair about the hoofs
and the false hoofs. The neck is slightly lighter than the
body. The sides and the throat are grayish with a white patch
on the forethroat and with the nape decidedly cinnamon.
The forehead is uniform rufous from the horn bases to the
front of the eyes. The ridge of the snout as far as the muz-
zle is black or seal-brown, variegated by a few scattered white
hairs. The tip of the snout bordering the muzzle, the upper
lips, and the chin are white. The sides of the snout are tawny,
lined by black. There is a broad, white stripe above the
eye extending from the middle to an inch in front of the
angle on the sides of the snout. The cheeks below are
grayish, like the sides of the neck. The backs of the ears are
cinnamon, gradually growing darker toward the tip, where
they are broadly seal-brown on both sides, and the inside ex-
cept the extreme tip is white. The female is like the male in
color but darker, owing to heavier black tips to the hair.
500 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
and the ears are much more broadly tipped by seal-brown, the
whole terminal half being dark. The rufous of the forehead
is lined by black, but is not uniform as in the male. The
tail on the dorsal surface is rufous, only the tip being seal-
brown.
A large male had the following flesh measurements: head
and body, 79 inches; tail, 21 inches; hind foot, 22 inches; ear,
9 inches. The average length of an adult male skull is i^}4
inches. The largest is i8>^ inches, which equals large skulls
of ugandcB from the Semliki River. The female skulls are
smaller, usually 14^ inches in length. The horns of large
bucks are seldom more than 25 inches in length, the longest
in the National Museum being 28^ inches.
In the eastern limits of its range on the German border
this race associates with the common waterbuck, K. ellipsi-
prymnus, living with it in the same meadows, but keep-
ing apart in herds of its own kind. Captain Dickinson in
"Big Game Shooting on the Equator" describes such asso-
ciation of the two species on the border. The common
waterbuck has been reported as far west as Ikoma, German
East Africa, on the headwaters of streams flowing to the
Victoria Nyanza.
Laikipia Defassa
Kobiis defassa tjaderi
Cobus defassa tjaderi Lonnberg, 1907, Arkiv. Zool., Stockl., IV, p. 7.
Range. — Laikipia Plateau west to the eastern edge of
the Rift Valley, north as far as Lake Baringo, and south to
Mount Suswa, at least.
Recently a specimen of the defassa shot by R. Tjader at
the extreme eastern limits of the species near the junction
of the Guaso Narok and Northern Guaso Nyiro Rivers has
been described as a new race by Lonnberg. The characters
of this form are its dark coloration, the head being especially
dark, the black color of the snout extending far up the fore-
head well into the interorbital area of the forehead. In size
it is somewhat smaller than the other races.
J ^1 ^
!
' t
MAP 21 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE DEFASSA WATERBUCK
1 Kobus dejassa defassa
4 Kobus dejassa tjaderi
2 Kobus defassa harnieri
5 Kobus defassa 7natschiei
7 Kobus defassa nzoics
501
3 Kobus defassa Uganda
6 Kobus defassa raineyi
502 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Common Waterbuck
Kohus ellipsiprymnus
The common waterbuck is well characterized by the
broad white ring on the rump, which encircles the tail and
contrasts conspicuously with the dark-brown coat. This is
the only very obvious difference from the defassa, but other
minor points, such as the lack of reddish suffusion to the
coat, the smaller body size, and the light-colored legs, may
be made out upon actual comparison of specimens. No
intergrading races are known between these two species,
although they lack skull differences and occupy separate
geographical areas, as is characteristic of races rather than
species. At the northern limits of its range the common
waterbuck shows a reduction in the rump ring, the middle
portion across the back being often obsolete or wanting.
The common waterbuck is in some parts of its range subject
to albinism, a condition never met with in the closely allied
defassa. Several geographical races are recognized which
are based on differences in the general tone of coloration.
The common waterbuck is limited to the eastern coast region
of Africa east of the Rift Valley, from southern Somaliland
south to the Limpopo River in the Transvaal.
Key to the Races of ellipsiprymnus
General dorsal coloration light, drab or hair-brown thika
General dorsal coloration dark, warm sepia-brown kuru
Highland Waterbuck
Kohus ellipsiprymnus thika
Native Name: Kikamba, ndoo.
Kobus ellipsiprymnus thikce Matschie, 1910, Sitz. Ber. Ges. Nat. Fre., Berl.,
p. 411.
Range. — From the Northern Guaso Nyiro River of
British East Africa southward to the German border and
westward through the Rift Valley; east along the Tana
River and the flanks of the highlands to within a short
distance of the coast, where it intergrades with the Swa-
hili race.
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 503
The highland waterbuck was described recently by
Matschie from a specimen shot by Major Powell-Cotton
on the Thika a few miles north of the Athi Plains. It is
distinguishable from the other races by its lighter color, with
the exception of pallidus of Somaliland, which is the lightest
of all the races. The general tone of the dorsal coloration
is drab or hair-brown without any cinnamon suffusion, and
so light that the white rump stripe and the throat patch
are not very conspicuous. The legs are little darker than
the body, but are much more brownish, being uniform cin-
namon-brown. A specimen from the Northern Guaso
Nyiro has been described by Lonnberg as a distinct race,
but we fail to find any color differences in specimens from this
locality and those from Juja Farm which represent the high-
land race. Along the lower reaches of the Northern Guaso
Nyiro completely albino specimens are occasionally seen.
Such individuals are described as having eyes of normal
color and to occur associated in herds with normally colored
specimens. Some of the albino females are reported as
breeding, the offspring being normally colored. In the
elevated region traversed by the Northern Guaso Nyiro
through the eastern portion of the Laikipia Plateau the
highland waterbuck meets and associates with the defassa.
We met the common waterbuck only in the eastern part
of East Africa; as we went westward it was supplanted by
its close kinsman, the defassa. In habits the two species are
identical; there were sometimes wide differences in conduct
and behavior between the waterbucks of one locality and
those of another, but these differences were within the same
species, and were parallel in the two species. Waterbuck
are highly polygamous, one big bull having perhaps a score
of cows in his herd. A few young bulls, yearlings, or two-
year olds, may be allowed to stay with the herd or hang
around the outskirts; but eventually the master bull drives
them off, and they wander singly, or in small parties, until
one or another grows big enough to rob of his harem
504 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
some master bull of failing thews; whereupon the latter, in
his turn, begins a life of solitude. The master bull is not
generally the herd leader; this function, as with the American
wapiti, is usually performed by some old and wary cow.
The carriage of the waterbuck is like that of the wapiti,
proud and graceful, with the neck erect, instead of held
almost in line with the back, as with the oryx; this
proud port, and the long, shaggy hair, give it a look like
that of some big northern stag. White waterbuck are in
certain places not uncommon; it is certainly a singular thing
that in a land teeming with beasts of prey any individual
of such a strikingly conspicuous color should be able to
reach maturity, and, as is frequently the case, to breed. I
heard of one white waterbuck cow with a calf of the ordinary
color.
The waterbuck is not a water antelope in the sense that
is true of the lechwi and sitatunga. It lives on dry land,
feeding and resting among the trees and bushes. But it is
never found very far from water, and when hunted it takes
to the water readily, even when there are crocodiles near;
it swims well and boldly, and if hunted by dogs it will, if
possible, come to bay in a pool. In the early morning we
found waterbuck feeding a mile or two from any cover, on
the bare, short-grass plains of the Athi, but when alarmed
they at once fled for the trees along the river course. In one
instance we found a small party of waterbuck taking a
siesta under some small, almost leafless thorn-trees, miles
away from water, on a bare plain swarming with zebra.
Ordinarily, however, the waterbuck keeps to the groves and
glades, feeding and resting alternately at all hours through
the day and night. The cow keeps by herself for a few days
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 505
while the calf is very young. We have sat within a few
yards of a cow and calf which were lying down, and
watched them for many minutes before they took alarm.
The food is usually grass, but sometimes the animals
browse.
Waterbuck are not as formidable fighters as the roan,
sable, or oryx; but the old bulls — perhaps trained by their
desperate battles among themselves — must be approached
with some caution if at bay, for their horns are sharp, and
the strength of their heavy bodies is great. Doctor Rains-
ford was severely hurt by the sudden lunge and struggle
of a wounded waterbuck bull when he attempted to cut its
throat; and a white man with Major Bulpett was killed
under similar conditions. A badly wounded bull attempted
to charge Kermit and his gun-bearers.
An adult male shot at Juja Farm measured in the flesh:
79 inches in length of head and body; tail, i8 inches; hind
foot, 21I/2 inches, and ear, g}i inches. Skull length, 15
inches. The horns of this specimen were 23 ^^ inches on the
front curve, while those of the longest are 25 inches. Ward's
record for East Africa is 29 inches. The horns of the typical
ellipsiprymnus of the Zambesi region are much longer, the
record being 36^ inches. This record is equal to that of
defassa, but curiously enough the geographical position of
greatest horn growth is reversed in the two species, the short-
est-horned defassa occurring in the south in close proximity
to the longest-horned eliipsiprymfius. The identification of
heads, however, is attended with much uncertainty unless
the body color or the exact locality are known, owing to
the close color and horn resemblance of the defassa and
ellipsiprymmis.
506 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
SWAHILI WaTERBUCK
Kohus ellipsiprymnus kuru
Native Name: Swahili, kuru.
Kobiis ellipsiprymnus kuruWeWe.]:, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 13, p. 6.
Range. — Coast district from the Tana River southward
along the coast into German East Africa and westward
along the larger watercourses to Kilimanjaro.
The race of the common waterbuck inhabiting the coast
district of British and German East Africa has recently
been described from specimens collected at Taveta by Doc-
tor W. L. Abbott. The waterbuck mentioned by such early
explorers of the coast district as Hildebrandt and Fischer
refer to this race. Willoughby, Jackson, and several other
sportsmen have given accounts of this race. The Swahili
waterbuck is closely allied to thikce of the Athi Plains, but
differs from this race by its darker, sepia-brown color,
darker-brown legs, and lighter-colored snout, which shows
little contrast to the color of the forehead.
The color of the median dorsal region is uniform dark-
brown or warm sepia, with the sides lighter, deep brownish-
drab in color. The breast is drab and the belly whitish. The
white stripe on the hind quarters is not continuous across
the rump, but is broad and distinct on the sides. The tail
is sepia like the back, the tip very little darker, and the
under side has a narrow line of white. The legs from the
knees and the hocks are uniform sepia-brown, and darker
than the sides. There is a white fringe above the hoofs and
the false hoofs. The neck is somewhat lighter than the
body, being dark brownish-drab, but the nape is uniform in
color with the throat. There is a whitish blotch on the
upper throat. The sides of the head are like the neck in
color. The dorsal surface of the snout is sepia-brown, but
contrasts very little with the more reddish cinnamon-brown
forehead. The rhinarium of the snout is bordered by a
white band and the lips and chin are white. There is also
a broad white area at the front angle of the eye about two
inches long. The area about the eyes and the back of the
ears is ochraceous-tawny. The tips of the ears are sepia-
brown, and the inside is white.
MAP 22— DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE COMMON WATERBUCK
1 Kobus ellipsiprymnus thikcs 2 Kobus ellipsipryynnus kuru
507
508 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
No flesh measurements of specimens are available. The
race is smaller somewhat than the highland form, the skull
measuring only 14 inches in length. Horns average 23
inches in length.
The Kobs
Adenota
Adenota Gray, 1850, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 129; type Kobus kob.
The kobs are easily distinguishable from the reedbucks
and waterbucks by the peculiar S-shaped curve assumed
by the horns. The horns near the base are bowed back-
ward, but the tips are recurved forward and inward giving
them the shape of an elongated "S" when viewed from
the side. The back of the pasterns and the border of the
hoofs are well haired as in the waterbuck. The tail is short,
usually less than fourteen inches in length, and does not
reach the hocks. The tip has a distinct tuft of long hair.
All of the races, with the exception of the white-eared, are a
uniform tawny-yellow color on the dorsal surface without
any very bold markings, with the exception of the black
leg stripes present in most races. The nearest allies of the
kobs are the lechwis, which have somewhat similarly shaped
horns, but differ decidedly by having the whole posterior
surface of the pasterns and a narrow border surrounding the
hoofs and false hoofs bare or hairless. The tail is also much
longer, usually reaching to the hocks, and bearing at the tips
a distinct tuft of long hair. The length of this member aver-
ages four inches longer than in the kobs. The horn length
is considerably greater in the lechwi, in which the horns are
wider-spread, sublyrate, and less S-shaped. The skull is
distinctly longer-snouted in the kobs, and is without the
prominent swelling in the supraorbital region which is char-
acteristic of the lechwi. The genus includes two species,
vardoni, of the Zambesi region, which lacks the black leg
stripes, and kob, of the equatorial region.
The kobs range from the Zambesi watershed northward
through the central lake drainage area to the Nile Valley;
east to British East Africa, and westward through Nigeria
to Senegal.
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 509
Equatorial Kob
Adenota kob
The equatorial kob is characterized chiefly by its black-
fronted or striped legs, and by its uniformity in body size
and shape of horns. The female is very little inferior in
size to the male. In some of the races it shows great indi-
vidual and age color differences in the male sex in the color
of the ears, which assume a white coloration as age advances.
In one race the male often becomes quite a deep brown or
black on the upper parts. The color of the female is, how-
ever, quite constant in the various races. The nursing
young have the general color pattern of their female parent,
but are slightly lighter, the dorsal surface and head being
ochraceous. They particularly resemble the female in the
possession of dark, seal-brown ear tips and in the restricted
white orbital area, but the legs are without the dark stripes
in front, these being merely indicated by a slight darkening.
The light hoof-bands are also but faintly indicated.
The range includes equatorial Africa from Senegal and
the Niger eastward to the Nile Valley and the Victoria
Nyanza, and northward to the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Key to the Races of kob
Back of ears in male tawny like dorsal coloration or cream-bufF, but
always with decided dark tips; female with leg stripes dark
seal-brown and without a white preocular stripe on the
snout.
Size larger; coloration deeper tawny, pelage long; brain case deep;
female lined with black on median dorsal surface thomasi
Size smaller; coloration lighter tawny; brain case shallower;
female without black lining on upper parts alurce
Back of ears in the male wholly white or cream-bufF, the tip only
slightly darker if at all; old males usually becoming deep
seal-brown or black on dorsal surface, with white ears and
orbital area; the female with leg stripes hair-brown, and with
a white preocular stripe on the snout. leucotis
510 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Uganda Kob
Adenota kob thomasi
Native Name: Uganda, nsunnu.
Adenota thomasi Neumann, 1896, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 192.
Range. — Upper Nile watershed from the headwaters of
the 'Nzoia River on the flanks of the Uasin Gishu Plateau
westward through Uganda to the Albert Nyanza, north-
ward along the Elgon highlands west of Lake Rudolf to the
Soudan boundary at least.
The Uganda kob has long been known to naturalists, but
it has only comparatively recently been distinguished from
the older species from Senegal and the Zambesi River.
Speke and Grant brought heads from Uganda in 1863.
These were the earliest specimens to reach Europe, and were
confounded with the white-eared race by Sclater. Later, in
1891, F. J. Jackson sent specimens to the British Museum
from Mount Elgon which were referred first to the Zambesi
species, vardo7ii, and later to the typical race, kob, of Senegal.
Finally, Herr Oscar Neumann distinguished the race in 1896
and described it under the present name, Adenota thomasiy
naming it for Oldfield Thomas of the British Museum.
We found this species in one form or another, common
from the Uasin Gishu across to the White Nile, and down
the White Nile to the sud; below the sud its place was
taken by the white-eared kob. They are rather chunky
animals, big bucks reaching a weight of nearly two hundred
and fifty pounds.
Although close kin to the waterbuck the golden-coated
kob reminds the observer more of the impalla. Along the
Uasin Gishu we found the kob in herds of twenty or thirty
does and young animals, with a single master buck to each
herd. Their range was much more limited than that of the
waterbuck in the same region, for they did not go so far
away from the river, out on the rolling and hilly plains, nor
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 511
on the other hand did they stay in the belt of thick timber
by the river brink. Their country was the strip of land,
a couple of miles broad, which fringed this timber belt on
either side. Reedbuck were scattered through the same
country, and always sought to escape notice by hiding and
crouching or sneaking off with bent legs through the tall
grass. The kob, on the contrary, did not seek to escape
notice. They were always in plain sight, trusting to their
senses to warn them of the approach of foes. When they
ran they occasionally made big bounds in the air, like
impalla. They were fond of using the ant-hills as lookout
stations, and it was curious to see a score of them covering
the top and sides of a big ant-hill, with all their necks
stretched out as they watched. They are grass-eaters.
The Uganda kob differs from the typical race by its
larger size and darker coloration, and from leucotis by the
absence of the black coat in the old bucks, and the absence
of wholly white ears. The color of the ears of the bucks
shows much age variation. In old males of thomasi the
ears are sometimes quite white with the exception of the
tips, which are always darker, at least never lighter than
tawny. From its nearest geographical ally, alurce of the
west side of the Nile, it is distinguishable by the much
darker dorsal color, which is due to the abundant suffusion
of black-tipped hair. The female resembles the male in
color, but the ears are tawny like the body, never whitish,
and always with seal-brown tips.
In the adult male the head and body are ochraceous-
rufous, overlaid on the rump with black to a slight extent,
but lightening on the sides and the limbs to ochraceous-buff.
The cheeks are ochraceous-buff and considerably lighter
than the forehead and snout. The orbital area is whitish, and
most pronounced in front of the eye. The backs of ears are
ochraceous-buff and the tips distinctly darker ochraceous-
tawny. The base, lower sides, and inside of the ears are
512 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
white, as are also the chin, throat, lips, and margin of the nos-
trils. The whole lower throat is ochraceous and somewhat
lighter than the nape. The under-parts and the inside of the
legs to the hocks and the knees and the under-surface of
the tail are sharply defined white. The legs have a broad,
blackish-brown band extending from the whitish hoof-band
to the shoulder on the forelegs, and to the hocks on the hind
legs. The back part of the forelegs is whitish, but this area in
the hind legs is ochraceous. The false hoofs are bordered by a
much narrower band of white than the hoofs. The female
is like the male, but easily distinguishable by the dark seal-
brown tips of the ears and the small extent of white in the
orbital region. The female resembles the female leucotis, but
the dorsal color is much darker tawny-ochraceous, the sides
are more ochraceous-buff, and show considerable contrast
to the white under-parts. The backs of ears are like the body
color, the tips are broadly tipped by seal-brown, and the base
and inside are white. The orbital white area is not pro-
duced forward as a preocular stripe. The legs have a dark
streak in front which is deep seal-brown as in the females of
alurcs. The hoof-band and the inside of the legs are buffy.
The measurements of an adult male in the flesh from the
Uasin Gishu Plateau are: head and body, 65 inches; tail, 13
inches ; hind foot, 1 7 inches ; ear, 6}4. inches. Length of skull,
1 1 >2 inches. The average length of the horns along the curve
is 16 inches and the spread is 14 inches. The longest horns
in a series of three adult males are 17^ inches, and the
greatest spread is 11 inches. A series of both sexes from
the headwaters of the 'Nzoia River in the Uasin Gishu
Plateau region have been studied, also the types in the
British Museum, including specimens from central Uganda.
Lado Kob
Adenota kob alurce
Native Names: Madi, ha; Aclioli, til.
Adenota kob alurce Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7, p. 11.
Range. — West side of the Nile from the Albert Nyanza
northward to the Bahr-el-Ghazal drainage; limits of range
not known.
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 513
The Lado kob was described recently from specimens
shot by Colonel Roosevelt at Rhino Camp on the west bank
of the Nile a few miles north of the station of Wadelai.
In the Lado, the territory was everywhere of much the
same character, grassy plains covered with a sparse, scanty
growth of trees and bushes; and the kob, like the other
species, was far less specialized in its habitat than on the
Uasin Gishu. Waterbuck, kob, and hartebeest were all
found indiscriminately over the country, and often together;
from the same spot in two shots, at only a couple of seconds
interval, we shot a hartebeest bull and a fine buck kob.
As a rule, none of the antelope were shy in the Lado.
The Lado race is like the Uganda kob in color, but lighter
and decidedly smaller. The skull is smaller and flatter in
both sexes and the size of the hoofs is smaller. It approaches
the typical kob of Senegal in its small size and stands quite
intermediate between it and thomasi, but differs by having
the head more extensively white, the entire orbital region
being white and the ears also showing a tendency to white-
ness, in some being uniform buft'y on the back without the
blackish tip. The old males, however, never assume the
black coat characteristic of this sex in leucotis nor do they
show, as a rule, the white ears. The female is distinguish-
able from the female Uganda kob by its lighter color and
the absence of the black lining to the dorsal region. The
hair is considerably shorter than in thomasi, being at the
hair whorl three-fourths of an inch or less, while on the
Uasin Gishu specimen it is one and one-fourth inches in
length at the same point.
The color of the head and body in the adult male is ochra-
ceous, lightening on the lower sides and the midline of the
throat to ochraceous-buff. The backs of the ears are lighter
than the head, and are ochraceous-buff, but the tips are very
little darker, being ochraceous-tawny. The orbital region,
base and sides of ears, lips, borders of nostrils, chin, upper
throat, chest, under-parts, inside of legs, under side of tail.
514 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
and band above hoofs and false hoofs are white. The front
of the forelegs from the light hoof band to the shoulders,
the front of the hind legs from the hoof band to the hock, and
the tip of the tail are blackish-brown or dark seal-brown.
No flesh measurements of this race are available. The
skull of an adult male measures ii^ inches in length. In
a' series of six adult males the longest horns measure 2i>^
inches along the curve by 13 inches in greatest spread.
These horn measurements exceed those of thomasi from the
'Nzoia River by three or four inches and indicate a greater
horn length for the Nile race, a difference which is further
confirmed by the measurements given in Rowland Ward's
"Records of Big Game."
White-Eared Kob
Adenota kob leucotis
Native Names: Djeng, kul; Dinka, teel.
Antilope leucotis Lichtenstein and Peters, 1853, N. B. Ak., Berl., p. 164.
Range. — The White Nile region in the vicinity of the
junction of the Sobat and Bahr-el-Ghazal aflluents eastward
along the Sobat to the Abyssinian border.
The white-eared kob was first obtained by Werne, a
German traveller, on the Sobat River, and described in
1853 t)y the well-known German naturalists Lichtenstein
and Peters. This specimen was not one of the character-
istic black males, but was of the tawny type like the re-
cently described vaughani. Heuglin met with this species
in 1 861 in the Sobat and Bahr-el-Ghazal regions, and de-
scribed it under its native names of kul and ivuil. Sir Samuel
Baker also met with the white-eared kob in his explorations
of the Nile sources.
This handsome antelope was found in herds along the
mouth of the Bahr el Zeraf. Their habits were substan-
tially those of the common kob. They were found on the im-
mense dry flats, sometimes among the scattered thorn-trees,
sometimes out on the stretches of short grass; although
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 515
in the neighborhood of water, they sought it merely to drink.
They were not very wary. They were grazers, hke the rest
of this genus. Like the common kob they went in big
bands, each composed of ewes and young rams with one or,
rarely, two or three old rams; and the old rams were also
found singly, and occasionally the young rams were in small
parties by themselves. The old rams were strikingly con-
spicuous, with their deep rich brown, almost black, coats,
and the sharply contrasted black and white markings on
their faces. Whether this dark coat is a permanent mark
of advanced age, or whether the old rams only assume it
seasonally, we do not know; some of the rams with horns
as fully developed as those of any we saw were not in this
adult pelage. It is certainly partly a matter of age and
partly a matter of individual peculiarity. The young rams
and ewes were a reddish-yellow, like the ewes of the white-
withered lechwi.
Vaughn's kob, which we found in the dry, thorn-studded
flats beside the Bahr el Ghazal, is apparently only a color
phase of the white-eared kob. Its habits were precisely the
same. Watching a ram that stood almost concealed by tall
grass, we were struck by the way in which its presence was
betrayed by the incessant wagging of the ears, to drive
away the biting flies. The ram stood otherwise motionless;
and when we were too far off for its partly screened and
dimly seen shape and color either to conceal or reveal it,
the motion of its ears attracted attention.
The most marked character in this long-known race is
the white ear which in old adult males is wholly white with
no trace of a darker tip. In immature specimens and in the
females the ears are ochraceous or buffy with dark-brown
tips. Another striking characteristic of this race is the dark-
516 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
brown or black coat assumed by some of the old males,
which is a color change not met with in any other kob.
The female is distinguishable from the other races by the
greater amount of white about the eye, which is continued
forward on the snout as a preocular stripe, and also by the
light color of the leg stripes which are hair-brown instead
of seal-brown.
A male in the dark phase has the dorsal surface of the
head and the body uniform dark seal-brown. The sides are
somewhat lighter, being bone-brown, and sharply defined be-
low from the white of the under-parts. The nape of the neck,
the crown, and the hinder surface of the thighs are mixed with
tawny hairs. The upper surface of the tail is pure ochra-
ceous-tawny, only the tip being black. The ears are wholly
white as well as a broad area at the base. The orbital
region is extensively white, the light color extending forward
as a preocular stripe toward the muzzle. The chin, throat,
lips, and margin of nostrils are white. There is a small white
spot on the cheeks below the ear. The white of the chest
extends far up the throat, leaving a rather narrow band of
seal-brown across the throat. The rest of the under-parts, in-
cluding the inside of the legs to the hoofs, and the whole of the
pasterns are white. The white stripe on the hind legs covers
the front surface from the hocks, the hinder part of which
is brown like the body.
At the northern limit of kobs in the Nile Valley the
old males usually assume deep seal-brown or black upper
parts similar to the adult livery of the sable antelope.
Some individuals, however, do not assume this dark coat
except to a slight degree, that is, only upon the sides of the
throat, the shoulders, and the legs and flanks and snout.
Such rufous-colored individuals were described as a new
race, nigroscapulata, by Matschie in 1899. More recently,
in 1906, Lydekker applied the name vaughani to similarly
colored specimens from the same region. Both of these
races are based on either immature or adult rufous-colored
individuals of the white-eared kob with which they agree in
having the ears white or cream-buff on the outer surface,
and the lower parts of the legs, half-way to the knees,
whitish. Some of these rufous individuals show, by the
worn condition of their teeth and the obliteration of most
of the sutures in their skulls, that they are really aged
MAP 23 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE KOB
1 Adeyiota kob leucotis 2 Adenota kob alurce 3 Adenota kob thomasi
517
518 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
animals, and it is quite evident that the black livery is to
some extent an individual character, although chiefly an age
affair. Selous, by the comparison of dates furnished by
sportsmen, has come to the conclusion that the black coat
is a seasonal change, but our experience throws consider-
able doubt on this opinion. We found both color phases
equally common at the same season, and in none of the
specimens were there any marks showing shedding or any
process by which a seasonal coat could be acquired. Speci-
mens identical in coloration with both nigroscapulata and
vaughani from the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal were secured
by the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction
of Colonel Roosevelt. Some of the upper Nile specimens
as well as the more remote ones from the Uasin Gishu
Plateau known as thomasi occasionally exhibit whitish ears
having the dark tips nearly obsolete. It is probable that
somewhere in the upper Bahr el Ghazal, perhaps in the
vicinity of Meshra-er-Rek, the two races meet. The white-
eared kob is without doubt local and confined to the extreme
northern limit of the range of the kobs in the Nile Valley.
Westward we find little or no change in the coloration of the
kobs between the Nile Valley and the Senegal or Nigerian
regions, which is a really vast extent of country.
The flesh measurements of an adult male are: head and
body, 6i inches; tail, 14 inches; hind foot, 17 inches; ear, 6
inches; greatest length of skull, 11 inches. Four adult male
skulls have been examined from the Bahr el Zeraf and Lake
No district. The average of horn dimensions in these speci-
mens is 18 inches in length by 14 inches in greatest spread.
Rowland Ward, however, records a great many specimens
from the Nile of this race, all of which have horns exceeding
20 inches, the maximum measurement being 24^ inches.
The Lechwi
Onotragus
Onotragus Gray, 1872, Cat. Rum. Brit. Mus., p. 17; type Cohiis lechee.
The genus Onotragus was founded by Gray in 1872 for
the reception of the lechwi and based upon the character
of the tufted tail and sublyrate shape of the horns in this
NILE LECHWI, ADULT MALE
Sliowins abnormal coloration, absence of white withers in' age
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Lake No, White Nile United States National Museum
NIl.l. Ll.ellWl. Alill.T MAI.l,
lioia W hilc Nile liilJ Museum, ChicaKu
MOUNTED SPECIMENS OF THE NILE LECHWI
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 519
species. No mention was made of the naked character of
the pasterns, or the short, bulging snout and wide nasal
bones so distinctive of the lechwi. Gray associated with
the lechwi the poku or Zambesi kob, an antelope of the
genus Adenota, while the Nile lechwi, which closely resembles
the true lechwi in the horn characters used by Gray, was
placed with the waterbucks. Later naturalists have not
recognized Gray's genera, but have lumped the lechwis and
kobs with the waterbucks in the genus Kobtis. Most recent
writers have adopted the arrangement of the species as
given by Sclater and Thomas in the " Book of Antelopes,"
where the Zambesi lechwi is placed at the end of the line
and the Nile lechwi widely separated from it and associated
with the waterbucks under the subgenus Cobtis.
The back of the pasterns and the border of the hoofs and
the false hoofs are hairless, the skin being thickened and
pad-like. The hoofs are long and slender. The tail is long,
the tufted tip reaching the hocks. The horns are long, sub-
lyrate in shape, and wide-spread. The snout is short and
bulging. The lechwi shows important differences from the
kobs and waterbucks in the short, wide nasal bones, the
prominent swelling of the supraorbital region, and the great
width of the basioccipital bone separating the tympanic
bullae. There are but two species: the Zambesi lechwi and
the Nile lechwi.
The distribution is peculiar and discontinuous. The
Zambesi lechwi ranges from Lake Ngami northward as far
as Lake Mweru on the northern border of Rhodesia, while
the Nile lechwi is confined to a very limited tract on the
White Nile more than one thousand miles north of Lake
Mweru.
Nile Lechwi
Onotragus megaceros
Native Names: Dinka, abokk; Nuer, til.
Adenota megaceros Fitzinger, 1855, Sitz. Ak., Wien, XVII, p. 247.
Range. — Mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal at its junction
with the White Nile. Apparently confined to the district
near the mouth of the Bahr-el-Ghazal side and unknown
520 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
east of the Bahr el Zeraf. Limits of range not known, but
reported as far north as Taufikia opposite the mouth of the
Sobat, and as far south on the Bahr el Ghazal as Wau.
Soon after the discovery of this antelope by Heuglin in
1853, and the accidental description of it by Fitzinger, it was
described as Cobus maria by Gray from specimens received
from Consul Petherick taken on the White Nile. Under this
name it has since been known to naturalists, owing to Fitz-
inger's description being considered inadequate. Fitzinger's
name, however, is accompanied by a mention of its large
horns and its general distinctness from the kob, and is more-
over founded on a specimen still preserved at Vienna which
was a few years later fully figured and described by Heuglin,
so that the name is well founded. Fitzinger mentions
Heuglin's intention of describing the species under the name
Adenota megaceros, and refrains on that account from describ-
ing it beyond giving the horn characters and the history and
locality of the specimen. Heuglin not only collected several
specimens of the Nile lechwi, but brought back to Vienna
with him a live female specimen, which, however, lived at
the Zoological Gardens but a short time. This is the only
specimen which has ever reached Europe alive. Inasmuch
as the rigid rules governing modern scientific nomenclature
sometimes give rather absurd results, it is a relief that in
this case they do justice, and enable us to substitute an
appropriate name, given to this fine riverbuck by its dis-
coverer, for an inappropriate name subsequently given to it
by a closet naturalist who had nothing to do with its dis-
covery.
This interesting animal ought to be called waterbuck,
for in its habits it is emphatically a buck of the water,
whereas the true waterbuck merely lives in the neighborhood
of water, on dry land. We found this lechwi on the flooded
ground along Lake No and the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal.
It was first discovered by Heuglin, and for the fifty
years intervening between his discovery and the date of our
visit has been shot by various sportsmen and travellers, and
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 521
occasionally described by closet systematists. It is a sin-
gular proof of the extreme difficulty even good observers
have in recognizing patent facts which are unexpected, that
none of these men recognized that this White Nile antelope
of the marshes was nearest of kin to the lechwi of the Zam-
besi and other South African rivers. They persistently com-
pared it either with the neighboring waterbuck, or more fre-
quently with the neighboring white-eared kob; at least one
of the systematists actually suggested that it was not dis-
tinct from the latter. Yet it is difficult to understand how
any observer of the animal in its haunts, or any student
with specimens before him, could fail to see its real affinities.
We had only read of the lechwi in the writings of Selous and
other observers, but as soon as we saw the Nile riverbucks
at home, we recognized their relationship to the riverbucks
of the Zambesi. One of our number, when we reached
Khartoum, wrote to Captain Stigand, who was on his way
southward through that city, telling him that the white-
withered antelopes were close kin to the lechwi; and, shortly
afterward, when he had himself observed them. Captain
Stigand confirmed this statement in a letter to Selous, which
the latter showed us.
We found the white-withered lechwi in large herds, some-
times of forty or fifty individuals. These herds made a
broad trail where they passed through the reeds or tall marsh-
grass or the edges of the papyrus; and the long-hoofed an-
telopes swam the deep channels without hesitation, and
splashed their way over the soft black mire, and across the
pools through the tough stems of the close-growing water-
lilies. Often the marshes through which they made their
way were so deep in water that it was up to our shoulders.
522 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
They feed, however, where the ground is merely moist, or
with only an inch or two of water, and where ant-hills dot
the stretches of tall grass. They are grazers and crop the
delicate grass of these moist stretches. Unlike the kob they
never mount the ant-hills to watch; their trust is in skulk-
ing under cover out of the reach of danger, and not in de-
tecting danger afar off and then fleeing in the open. They
are among the most noisy of antelope, continually uttering
croaking grunts ; when a herd is suspicious or slightly alarmed
these grunts make a perfect chorus. The animals almost
always kept to the cover of the tall grass, walking and trot-
ting with their necks outstretched, and the heads below the
level of the blade tops. Looking out over the marsh from
an ant-heap, we might at first see nothing; then, two or three
hundred yards off, a dozen heads would pop up, gaze steadily
at us, disappear, and then, after an interval of a couple of
minutes or so, reappear several hundred yards farther off.
Usually they skulked off at a trot or canter, with neck out-
stretched; but occasionally they galloped, now and then
making great bounds over the tops of the tall grass. At
other times they would stand in the tall grass until we were
but a score of yards off, although they were completely
screened from our view; then away they would steal, some-
times grunting loudly. The flexible pasterns and spread
hoofs leave big marks in the mud. The beasts make a tre-
mendous noise as they smash through the reeds and splash
across the shallow lagoons. Some of the biggest-bodied
bucks, with longest horns, did not have the white on the
withers and the back of the neck. Perhaps, in addition to
being a mark of sex and age, their white coloration only
develops seasonally.
WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 523
This species resembles closely in body size and horn
shape the Zambesi lechwi, but differs widely in coloration.
The dorsal coloration of the male is bay or seal-brown with
a large whitish patch on the withers extending along the nape
and spreading over the crown of the head, the ears, and the
orbital region. The tail is white with a black tuft at the tip.
The under-parts and hoof bands are white. The female is
uniform buffy in color on the dorsal surface, but the cheeks
are dark-brown and the orbital region whitish with a light
preocular stripe. In a normally colored adult male the dor-
sal color of the body is raw sienna merging on the sides to a
light olive-gray, the under fur being everywhere seal-brown
and showing through on the sides where the olive-gray only
overlies the hair lightly. The tail above is lighter, buffy, and
the tip black. The sides of the neck and the throat have
the seal-brown predominating like the sides, and overlaid
sparingly by a few buffy hairs. The withers are marked by
a large oval area of whitish hair overlaid by a wash of raw
sienna, the light area extending forward along the nape to
the crown, where it includes the ears and broadens out
greatly; on the nape it narrows down to a mere line, the
whole area being in outline much like a dumb-bell. The
legs are dusky-brown like the sides, being overlaid by light
olive-gray. The hoofs and false hoofs are marked by a
light band of cream-buff above the hairless border. The
under-parts are white from the chest to the base of the tail
as well as the inside of the hind legs. The forelegs at the
axilla and on the inside are dusky-brown with a patch of
buffy on the inside of the thighs. The side of the head is
uniform seal-brown to the lower margin of the orbit, the
seal-brown area being continued across the snout and up
the forehead to the base of the horns. There is a wide
cream-buff or whitish supraocular stripe continuous with
the white area of the crown and the ear base. The back of
the ear is buffy and the base and the inside are white. The
snout has a broad tawny patch on each side and the nos-
trils and lips are bordered narrowly by white. The chin is
white and merges gradually into the ochraceous-tawny fore-
throat. The rest of throat to the chest is seal-brown like
the sides and overlaid by light olive-gray sparingly. An
old adult male is brighter red, the body behind ferruginous;
524 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
the dark seal-brown color of the basal hair showing through
conspicuously everywhere, and the white area of the with-
ers, nape, and head suffused extensively by the ferruginous.
The hind part of the quarters and hind legs are everywhere
except in front of the hocks uniform ochraceous-tawny.
An adult male intermediate in age between the tw^o
males described is peculiar in coloration. It lacks all trace
of the whitish wither and head areas, being in color quite
uniform ochraceous-buff like the female. The color of the
body is ochraceous, but becomes lighter on sides or buffy.
The hind limbs are buffy and the forelegs buffy with a
dusky blotch in front on the thighs above the knee. The
nape of the neck is like the back in color. The sides of the
neck and the throat are dusky-brown overlaid by buffy
hairs. The crown of the head and the snout and the back
of the ears are ochraceous. The inside of the ears and the
supraocular stripes are white, and the sides of the face
dusky-brown. The lips, the border of the nostrils, and the
chin are white, the latter merging into the buff of the throat
which extends as a narrow line to the chest. The under-
parts are white but not sharply contrasted with the buffy
sides and the inside of the legs. The tail is buffy above and
white beneath with dark seal-brown tip. The old female
specimen, which has the teeth much worn, has the dorsal
color ochraceous-tawny but lacks the light patch on the
withers and the head of the male, and very little of the
dark-brown under fur shows through the tawny. The sides
are lighter and buffy, and the limbs are uniform buffy with
an indefinite drab streak on the front side from the hoofs
to the knees and the hocks. The tail is buffy with a tufted
black tip. The under-parts, the inside of the legs, and the
under side of the tail are white. The throat and the chest
are cream-buff in contrast to the tawny nape. The back of
the ears, crown, and snout are ochraceous-tawny. The in-
side of the ears and the base are cream-buff; and the supra-
ocular stripe is similar in color. The eye has a seal-brown
blotch below and the whole side of the face to the snout
shows seal-brown under hair overlaid by buffy. The lips,
chin, and borders of the nostrils are whitish. The general
coloration is similar to that of the female leucotis, but is
lighter and more buffy.
MAP 24 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES OF LECHWIS
1 Onotragus megaceros 2 Onolragus lechee
525
526 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The three specimens described above shot by Colonel
Roosevelt at Lake No show great color variation. The
youngest specimen, a fully adult male with horns twenty-
three inches in length and premolars showing slight wear,
has the white areas of the withers and head most distinct
with the remaining dorsal surface darkest in color. In the
oldest male the body color has become suffused strongly
with rufous, the white and black areas showing a strong
tendency to become uniformly rufous. The male of inter-
mediate age is no doubt an abnormally colored specimen or
freak, being somewhat lighter and more uniform than the
female in color. Adult males showing distinct white with-
ers and dark bodies have been examined at the British
Museum, the Congo Museum at Brussels, and the Field
Museum at Chicago, all of which showed well-developed
horns and were without doubt fully adult. A large series of
specimens, however, are needed to determine the individual
and age variation in color in this species. It is quite possible
that this species is subject to as great individual color
changes as its geographical associate, the white-eared kob.
An adult male showed the following flesh measurements:
head and body, 63 inches; tail, 18^ inches; hind foot, 20
inches; ear, 5/4 inches. The old female measured less in
length of tail and hind foot, these measurements being i6>^
and 17 inches, respectively. In a series of three males the
longest-horned specimen measured 29^ inches in length,
20^ inches in greatest spread, and had a skull length of
ii]4. inches. The female skull measures 10^ inches. The
longest-horned specimen recorded by Rowland Ward in a
series of 26 measures 33^2 inches.
CHAPTER XVII
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES
Duikers
Subfamily Cephalophina
The duikers form a very compact group of small and
diminutive antelopes having short, straight horns project-
ing backward in line with the dorsal profile of the head.
The horns are quite straight and never exceed the head in
length. A character peculiar to the duikers, and one by
which they may always be recognized, is the linear arrange-
ment of the anteorbital pores which form a long line on the
sides of the snout in front of the eye. The duikers in gen-
eral build are quite compact, with rather short legs and
neck, low withers, and well-developed hind quarters. The
hoofs are normal in shape, but the false hoofs show con-
siderable specific variation in size. The tail is short but
not rudimentary and is either well haired throughout or
tufted. The female has four mammae. The skull has a
large anteorbital fossa, quite equalling the orbit in size.
The snout is of medium length with very broad triangular
nasal bones expanding laterally and roofing over the ante-
orbital fossa. Two generic groups are included, the typical
or forest duikers and the bush or plains duikers, the latter
being a recent offshoot which have forsaken the forest for
a life in open bush country on the edge of plains. The
527
528 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
subfamily is distributed throughout all of Ethiopia and is
the most wide-spread group of antelopes in Africa. In past
geologic time duikers ranged as far as Algeria where they
are represented by two Pleistocene species.
Key to the Genera
Horns projecting straight back in line with or slightly below the
dorsal profile of the head, less than half the length
of the head, with broad base and triangular in
shape; hair unicolored without annulations
Cephalophus
Horns projecting backward and upward slightly above dorsal pro-
file of head, the length more than one-half the head,
base narrow, the horns long and cylindrical in shape;
hair annulated, the coat being vermiculated
Sylvicapra
Forest Duikers
Cephalophus
Cephalophus H. Smith, 1827, Griffith's Anim. Kingd., V, p. 344; t3^pe C. sylvi-
cultrix, the yellow-backed duiker.
The forest duikers are characterized by their short,
broad horns, which project backward from the skull slightly
below the line of the dorsal profile of the head. The horns
are much shorter than the head and often so diminutive
as to be concealed by the long coronal tuft of hair. In
distinction to the bush duikers the coloration is uniform
or of solid colors, the hair not being annulated or vermic-
ulated. The forest duikers occur only in heavy forest
growth. Their centre of abundance is in the great Congo
forest in much of which they are the only representatives
of the Bovidcs. In distribution they are spread over all the
forested areas of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, with the
exception of Abyssinia.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 529
Key to the Species of Cephalophus
Body size not diminutive; false hoofs well developed
Body size large, skull 9 inches or more in length, coloration of
back and rurnp seal-brown or black spadix
Body size medium, skull less than 8 inches in length; coloration of^
back and rump bright rufous 7iatalensis
Body size diminutive; false hoofs minute; coloration fuscous or slaty
monticola
Red Forest Duikers
Cephalophus natalensis
The red forest duikers form a very distinct group of
small bay-colored antelopes which are confined in their dis-
tribution strictly to dense forest growth. In color they
are bright or deep red with the whole top of the head and
nape, chest, and legs blackish or dark in color. The tail
is short with a bushy tuft at the tip showing a mixture of
dark and light colors. The horns are short and so broad
basally that they are quite triangular in shape. The fe-
male is equal to the male in size, but possesses much smaller
horns. The sexes are identical in coloration. The young
or immature are quite blackish or deep brown in color on
the forward half of the body, the bay color making its
appearance first upon the rump and gradually spreading
forward to the head in adult life. The red duikers are
distributed in several geographical forms from South
Africa northward throughout the breadth of Africa as far
as the equator in East Africa, but extend much farther
north on the West Coast to the southern edge of the Sahara.
They are solitary in habits and move about chiefly at night
in definite runways or paths in the forest along which they
browse on the undershrubs.
Key to the Races of natalensis
Body bright red or bay color
Legs lighter than the crown patch, walnut-brown harveyi
Legs blackish like the crown patch in color ignifer
Body tawny or cinnamon-rufous johnstoni
530 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Kilimanjaro Red Duiker
Cephalophus natalensis harveyi
Native Name: Swahili, nuno.
Cephalophus harveyi Thomas, 1893, Ann. i^ Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), XI, p. 48.
Range. — From the Juba and Tana Rivers southward
along the coast to German East Africa and westward to
KiHmanjaro and Mount Meru.
Jackson collected the type which was named at his
suggestion for Harvey, who had shot a specimen previously
on the River Lumi near Taveta. The type specimen was
obtained in the Kahe forest on the south slope of Kiliman-
jaro. Several years previous to the discovery of the
species by Harvey, Sir John Kirk sent a specimen to the
British Museum from Malindi which had been referred to
natalensis and then forgotten. Other specimens have been
shot on the coast of German East Africa near Tanga,
Saadani, and Dar-es-Salam. The northern record is based
on specimens secured on the lower Juba River by Captain
Bottego in 1894.
The Kilimanjaro red duiker may be distinguished from
the highland race of British East Africa by its lighter-
colored legs, smaller body size, and absence of white on the
inner side of the limbs on their basal portion. From the
typical race, natalensis, of South Africa it differs by having
the whole dorsal surface of the snout and head black or
deep seal-brown in color. No flesh measurements of speci-
mens are recorded. The skull length of the male specimen
shot by Doctor L. W. Abbott near Taveta and now in the
National Museum is 6^/i inches. The horn dimensions in
this specimen are: length, 3^ inches; girth at the base, 2^
inches.
Highland Red Duiker
Cephalophus natalensis ignifer
Native Name: 'Ndorobo, meindet.
Cephalophus ignifer Thomas, 1903, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 226.
Range. — Highland forest area of British East Africa
from Mount Kenia westward over the Kikuyu and Mau
Escarpments to Mount Elgon.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 531
A red duiker obtained near Edoma Ravine was made the
basis for the description of another race, ignifer, by Thomas
In 1903. This specimen showed a smaller amount of black
on the crown than the closely allied race, nigrifrons, of
the Congo. It is distinguishable from harveyi by the dark
color of the legs, by larger body size, and the presence of
some rufous hair In the crown patch. Recently, specimens
from Nairobi have been described as a different race,
kenicSy by Lonnberg, who gives the color differences with
harveyi as the character of his race. Nairobi specimens
have been compared at the British Museum with the type
of ignifer and with other specimens from Ruwenzori, and
have been found quite identical in coloration. Two adult
female specimens from Nairobi are in the National Museum
which show considerable variation In the amount of black-
ness on the crown, nape, and breast. The type has the
color of the back bright bay or ochraceous-rufous, darken-
ing forward on the neck and shoulders to dull brownish.
The forehead Is mixed rufous and black. The crown and
occiput are bright-rufous, like the back; and the coronal tuft
is a deeper and more chestnut or vinaceous rufous. The lips
and chin are white. The ears are dark-brown on the back,
with white edges and inner surfaces. The throat Is rufous
and the belly is brown mesially, grading into rufous, laterally.
The Inner side of the forearms, the inguinal region, and the In-
ner side of the thighs are white. The outer side of the thighs
and the forearms is rufous. The feet are brown, darkening al-
most to black above the hoofs. The tail Is rufous above, white
belowproximally, with a mixed brown and white terminal tuft.
The skull length of an adult male Is 6>^ Inches, that of
a female 6^ Inches. The horn length of a male from
Eldoma Ravine is 3^ inches with a basal diameter of 1%
inches. The horns of an adult female from Nairobi are
about one-half of these dimensions. They are ij/i Inches
in length by ^ of an Inch in diameter at the base.
Uganda Red Duiker
Cephalophus natalensis johnstoni
Cephalophus johnstoni ThomzSy 1901, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 89.
Range. — Throughout the forest area of Uganda from
the western base of Mount Elgon eastward to Ruwenzori,
532 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
on the slopes of which It ranges to an altitude of 10,000
feet.
The Uganda race of the red duiker was named by
Oldfield Thomas from a specimen collected in 1900 by Sir
Harry Johnston in Toro during his administration as special
commissioner of Uganda. The type unfortunately is quite
youthful, having only the milk teeth in use and does not
represent the adult coloration. Immature specimens of
ignifer of the same age are quite like the type of johnstoni.
Another species described by Thomas as riibidus, from a
flat native skin without skull obtained in the same general
region, is doubtless an adult of johnstoni and is much redder
than the younger specimen, which is in the blackish pelage
of youth. The Uganda red duiker may be known from the
highland race by its larger body size and lighter or more
tawny coloration, old adults being quite yellowish or
ochraceous-tawny, similar to zueynsi of the upper Congo.
In the young the head, neck, shoulders, and fore back are
quite blackish or seal-brown with only the rump and the
legs bright rufous.
The heads of a male and a female from Kampala, pre-
sented by District Commissioner Knowles to Colonel
Roosevelt, are in the National Museum. The dimensions
of these specimens are: length of skull, male, yyi inches;
female, 7 inches; length of horns, male, 3^^ inches; female,
i^ inches; diameter of horns at base, male, i^/i inches;
female, ^ inch.
Abbott Duiker
Cephalophus spadix
Cephalophus spadix True, 1890, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 227.
Range. — Forests of Kilimanjaro and the Usambara
Range.
The type specimen collected by Doctor L. W. Abbott
at a high elevation on Kilimanjaro has remained unique
for many years. Recently, the British Museum has re-
ceived a head from the Usambara Range, at a point one
hundred miles inland from Tanga, a port on the coast of
German East Africa. This discovery would indicate that
the species is not confined to the high forests of Kilimanjaro,
but is distributed throughout the coast forests as well.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 533
The Abbott duiker differs widely from any of the East
African species by its large size. It resembles quite closely
in size and color the black duiker of the West Coast of
Africa, from which it differs by the absence of rufous on
the chest and the character of the tail, which is long-haired
throughout. The skull differs from that of the black
duiker by its narrower mesopterygoid fossa and small
tympanic bullae. Sclater and Thomas in the " Book of
Antelopes" suggest that the close agreement which True
detected between this species and the black duiker is not
well founded, and that it is really a close relative of the
red duiker, natale^isis. A comparison of skulls, however,
shows close similarity in the shape of the palate between
the Abbott and black duiker and less agreement with the
red species. We are quite justified in considering it the
East Coast representative of the black duiker of West
Africa. It belongs in a general way to the group of giant
duikers, of which the yellow-backed duiker C. sylvicultrix
is typical.
The color of the type, which is an adult male, is uniform
chestnut-brown on the body and legs, the under-parts being
quite as dark as the flanks. The hinder parts of the back and
the rump are darkest, and seal-brown in color. The tail is
dark, like the rump, and has a few white-tipped hairs at the
tip. The dorsal surface of the head is chestnut, like the body,
and the crown has a long tuft of blackish hair. The sides of
head and the snout are light-drab. The ears are chestnut on
the back with lighter inner surfaces. The type is in the
National Museum and measures as mounted: head and
body, 38 inches; tail, 3 inches; hind foot, 11 inches; ear,
3^ inches. The skull measures in greatest length g}^
inches. Horn dimensions: length, 4^ inches; diameter at
base, lyi inches.
Blue Duikers
Cephalophus monticola
The diminutive blue duiker in its numerous geograph-
ical forms is wide-spread throughout Africa from the ex-
treme southern point north through all the forested regions
to the southern edge of the Sahara on the west and the
534 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Nile Lakes and Tana River on the east. The bhie duikers
may be distinguished from all other members of the genus
by their small size and dark brownish or grayish coloration.
In size they are among the smallest members of the Bovidc^y
rivalling the pygmy and the royal antelopes for diminutive
body size. Their horns are the shortest found in the genus
Cephalophus, being only one-third the length of the head.
They extend backward and curve inward at the tips and
are heavily ringed, the latter character giving them a
close resemblance to those of the pygmy antelope. The
false hoofs are greatly reduced and relatively much smaller
than in the red duikers. The sexes are alike in color and
size, but the female is usually without horns in the East
African races. Like the red duikers, they are confined to
dense forest growth, where they are either paired or lead a
solitary life. They travel about through the forest on
definite narrow paths of their own construction and browse
upon the leaves and twigs of various shrubs. In movement
they are extremely quick and avoid their enemies by the
rapidity of their pace as well as by their wariness and shy-
ness. The recognizable races number about twelve, three
of which occur in East Africa.
Key to the Races of monticola
Legs fuscous-brown, like the body
Under-parts dark-colored, like the sides of the body; body size
smaller cequatorialis
Under-parts light grayish, contrasting conspicuously with the
dark sides; body size larger musculoides
Legs vinaceous-cinnamon, decidedly lighter than the brown body
hecki
Uganda Blue Duiker
Cephalophus monticola aquatorialis
Native Name: Luganda, entalaganya.
Cephalophus csquatorialis Matschie, 1892, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu. Berl.,
p. 112.
Range. — Forests of Uganda from Mount Elgon west-
ward to Ruwenzori and from the Victoria Nile southward
to Karagwc and the Edward Nyanza.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 535
The Uganda race of the blue duiker was described by
Matschie upon some skins obtained by Doctor Stuhlmann
near Kampala, in the Chagwe district. The Baganda use
the skins for mantles and robes, for which purpose the skins
are roughly tanned and sewn together in a single piece.
Duiker-skins are a common commodity in the native mar-
kets, where they are offered for sale. The animals are
caught in snares set across their runways in the forest,
and are trapped primarily for their flesh, of which the
natives are very fond. The race may be distinguished from
the Congo blue duiker, melanorheus, by its darker under-
parts and the absence of horns in the female. No flesh
measurements of specimens are available. The skull of
an adult male from Kampala in the National Museum
has a length of 4>^ inches, with horns ly^ inches in length
by yi inch in diameter at the base.
Nandi Blue Duiker
Cephalophus monticola musculoides
Native Name: Kavirondo (Jaluo), kised.
Cephalophus monticola musculoides Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61,
No. 7, p. 9.
Range. — Summit and west flank of the Mau Escarp-
ment from Eldoma Ravine Station west to Mount Elgon
and southward to the Uganda Railway at Muhoroni.
The Nandi blue duiker was described from specimens
collected in the Kakumega forest at the base of the Nandi
Escarpment. It differs from the Uganda race by the
lighter-colored under-parts and larger body size, the skull
being ^ inch longer than in csquatorialis.
The median dorsal coloration of the head and the body
is fuscous, merging on the sides and under-parts to ecru-
drab. The legs are somewhat darker than the back, being
benzo-brown. The hinder border of the rump and the base
of the tail are fuscous-black. The terminal half of the tail
is white; but the hair basally is fuscous. The midline of
the belly, the throat to the chin, and the inside of the legs
are whitish. The top of the head and the muzzle are uni-
form fuscous, and the cheeks and the orbital region are
536 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
ecru-drab which gradually shades into the whitish chin and
throat. The ears are fuscous on the back, but the inner
side is whitish, like the throat.
The flesh measurements of an adult male are: head and
body, 20 inches; tail, 3^ inches; hind foot, 6^ inches;
ear, 2)4 inches. Length of skull, 4^2 inches. Horns, 1^4
inches in length by ^2 inch in basal diameter.
The Nandi race occupies the highland forest of the
Nandi Escarpment, lying at an average altitude of some
2,000 feet above the range of the Uganda race. The dif-
ferences in color and size of the two races are, no doubt, due
to this difference in altitude and environment. Specimens
from the summit of the Mau, at Elgeyo, are in the British
Museum collection. Owing to the forest habitat and the
secretive nature of these small antelope, they are almost
never met with by sportsmen. The recorded specimens
have all been obtained from the natives who trap them
for their flesh and skins.
Coast Blue Duiker
Cephalophus monticola hecki
Native Name: Swahili, paa.
Cephalophus hecki Matschie, 1897, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu. Berl., p. 158.
Range. — From the Witu district and the mouth of the
Tana River south through the forest area of the coast to
Mozambique.
The blue duiker inhabiting the coast forest area is strik-
ingly different from the Uganda race in color, but similar
to it in size. The legs are light vinaceous-cinnamon, in
marked contrast to the fuscous-brown body, and the under-
parts are pure white, at least medially. The tail is quite
bushy and white in color, with a narrow black dorsal stripe.
The race was described from a specimen in the Berlin
Museum from Mozambique and named for Doctor Heck,
the able director of the Berlin Zoological Garden. Speci-
mens have been examined at the British Museum from
the Shimba Hills near Mombasa and from Zanzibar Island,
collected by Sir John Kirk. This material is quite indis-
tinguishable from specimens from the Mozambique coast.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 537
Jackson, who appears to be the only sportsman who has met
with this rare Httle antelope, records it from the forests
near Witu. Robin Kemp, the mammal collector for the
British Museum, has collected a specimen recently in the
Shimba Hills. It will doubtless be found in all the larger
forest area of the coast district upon careful investigation.
Bush Duikers
Sylvicapra
Sylvicapra Ogilby, 1863, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 138; type Cephalophus grimmia.
The bush or common duikers are usually placed in the
genus Cephalophus together with the true forest duikers.
They have, however, several points of difference from the
latter, and there is less liability of confusion if they are
treated as a separate genus, Sylvicapra. The horns differ
from those of the forest duikers in direction, slanting up-
ward at an angle to the dorsal profile of the skull. In
shape they differ somewhat, being long, slender, and cir-
cular in outline at the base, with no approach to the trian-
gular flattened horns of the forest duikers. The female is
distinguishable from the forest duikers by the absence of
horns. The skull has a long, mesopterygoid fossa which ex-
tends well in front of the lateral ones. The nasal bones
are broadly triangular and project out on the sides, over-
hanging the anteorbital fossa. The bush duikers inhabit
scattered bush country on the edge of plains and are never
found in the forests. They show great adaptability, being
found throughout a greater altitudinal range than any other
hoofed mammal in Africa. In equatorial Africa they are
the only antelope which occurs as high as the alpine mead-
ows near the snow-line. At such high altitudes they are
quite as abundant as in the game country proper or in the
maritime districts. The genus occurs from the Cape north-
ward to the highlands of Abyssinia and westward across
the Nile and Niger watersheds to Senegal. It is, however,
absent from the Congo forest area, which is the centre of
abundance of the forest duikers. The genus is represented
by a single species, grimmia^ which is separable into numer-
ous geographical races. The species attains its maximum
538 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
size and darkest coloration in the Cape region. The sexes
are ahke in coloration, but the female exceeds the male
somewhat in body size. The young differ only from the
adults in tone of coloration, being darker and uniformly
vermiculated with blackish. The under-parts are drab
rather than white, and the head lacks any indication of
the bright tawny coloration of the adult, although the
black median stripe is well marked on the snout and
forehead.
The duiker is widely distributed not only laterally but
vertically. We found it feeding at night on the Aberdare
Mountains when the temperature was below freezing, and
we found it feeding at noon on the hot, dry plains of the
Lado, where the leaves of the acacias were shrivelled and
the thermometer stood high up in the nineties. It is a
solitary little animal, even two being rarely found together.
It is never found far away from thick cover, and when
alarmed bolts into it without turning to look back. It runs
with head extended, occasionally bounding high into the
air, and in the bush it runs at full speed in zigzags through
places which a hunter can hardly traverse at all. All these
bush antelope— bongo, bushbuck, duiker — go at speed, nose
straight out, through and under a tangle of branches which it
seems literally incredible that they can penetrate. Duikers
are browsers; they feed on twigs, leaves, bean pods, and
fruits. We found them eating wild olives and also the
berries of a plant that looked like nightshade; and in the
Lado they ate grass tips and the stems and leaves of a low-
growing bush plant.
The commonest food of the bush duiker is the foliage
and yellow berries of the nightshade, Solatium campylacan-
thum. On the summit of the Aberdare Range we found the
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 539
stomach contents to consist chiefly of the twigs and leaves
of the alpine shrub, Alche7nilla argyrophylla. At Voi the
stomach contents of one individual consisted of the leaves
and fruit of a native cucumber. Duikers are silent ani-
mals without any alarm or recognition notes.
Duikers are finished skulkers and hiders. They lie
motionless, with neck outstretched, until the hunter is very
close, if they think themselves concealed; and if they be-
come suspicious they are adepts at sneaking quietly out
of sight behind some bush and then making off rapidly
through the cover for several hundred yards.
Key to the Races of grimmia
Ears shorter, less than 4 inches in length
Body size smaller, skull less than 6 inches in length; lower part of
feet brownish-drab roosevelti
Body size larger, skull 6 inches or greater in length; lower part
of feet fuscous-brown nyanscs
Ears longer, exceeding 4 inches in length
Pelage long and heavy, much vermiculated with black or dark
brown; lower part of feet black altivallis
Pelage shorter and more uniform with very little blackish ver-
miculation; feet fuscous or seal-brown
Dorsal color tawny or ochraceous-tawny hindei
Dorsal color buff deserti
Nile Bush Duiker
Sylvicapra grimmia roosevelti
Native Names: Dinka, amook; Bongo, deelg.
Sylvicapra grimmia roosevelti Heller, 1912, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No.
8, p. 9.
Range. — From the Albert Nyanza northward over the
lowlands of the Nile drainage as far as the limits of the
540 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
bush country or the southern edge of the sand desert of
the Sahara in the White Nile region.
The type of the Nile bush duiker was shot by Colonel
Roosevelt near Rhino Camp, Lado Enclave, during his
quest for the white rhinoceros in that district, and was
described in 191 2 by Heller. The earliest mention of
the occurrence of the bush duiker in the Nile Valley is
apparently Heuglin's reference, in 1869, in his account of
his explorations on the White Nile, to some skins offered
him by the natives at Meshra-er-Rek in the Bahr-el-
Ghazal district. Schweinfurth included it in his list of
Nile mammals published in 1873, and gives the native
names by which it is known in the districts through which
he travelled.
The Nile bush duiker may be known by its small size
from any other race. Its distinctive color characters are
the more grayish tone of the dorsal parts, the absence or
faintness of the dark stripes on the legs below the knees,
and the lighter brownish-drab color of the dark bands above
the hoofs. Other characters are its short ears and the
small size of the skull, which is less than six inches in length.
The dorsal body coloration is wood-brown vermiculated
with blackish and darkest on the median line. Basally the
hair is ecru-drab. The sides of the body are lighter, be-
coming pure fawn where they meet the white of the under-
parts. The neck shows very little black vermiculation,
being almost wholly cinnamon-brown, this color extending
onto the head, where it deepens to russet on the crown and
borders the black median stripe which extends from the rhi-
narium to the base of the horns. The cheeks and sides of
the face are lighter, being fawn color. The rump is more
grayish than the back, the drab-gray predominating. The
tail is marked by a heavy black dorsal stripe, the sides and
lower surfaces are white, and the tip is chiefly white. The
belly and the inside of the legs are white, and the hair at
the extreme base is drab. The chest is mixed white and
fawn with the drab of the basal part showing through. The
lower throat is fawn, like the sides. The chin, upper lips,
and throat are white. The tip of the chin is marked by
dark-brown spot on each side separated by the white of the
throat. The limbs are grayish-fawn, like the back, with a
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 541
brownish-drab band encircling the hoofs and covering the
whole pastern region, while a stripe of the same color ex-
tends to the knees on the forelegs. The outside of the ears
is dark, and covered by minute scattered cinnamon hairs,
the tips showing no darker borders. The inside of the ears
is clothed by long white hairs.
The flesh measurements of an adult male from Rhino
Camp are: head and body, 31 }4 inches; tail, 4.J4 inches;
hind foot, 10 inches; ear, ^H inches. The basal length of
the skull from the condyles to the tip of the snout is 53^
inches. Three male specimens are in the National Museum
collection, two of them from Rhino Camp and the third
from Butiaba, a port on the northeast shore of the Albert
Nyanza. The maximum horn measurements in these spec-
imens are: length, straight, 33^ inches; spread at the tips,
ij/i inches.
Uganda Bush Duiker
Sylvicapra grimmia nyansa
Sylvicapra abyssinica nyansa Neumann, 1905, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu.,
Bed., p. 89.
Range. — From the southern limits of the Vfctoria
Nyanza drainage northward through Uganda and the
Elgon highlands as far as the latitude of Nimule; east-
ward over the Mau Escarpment of British East Africa to
the western edge of the Rift Valley.
Oscar Neumann described the Uganda bush duiker in
1905 from some flat native skins which he obtained in 1893
from the Kavirondo of the Kisumu district of British East
Africa. It is one of the small-eared races, resembling the
Nile race in this respect, but may be distinguished from
the latter by its larger body size, more ochraceous colora-
tion, and darker-brown color of the pastern region of the feet.
Specimens have been examined in the National Museum
from the Uasin Gishu Plateau collected by the Smithsonian
African expedition. Powell-Cotton collected specimens
north of Mount Elgon and also in the Kedef Valley east
of Nimule, which represent the northern limits of this race.
An adult female from the Uasin Gishu Plateau gives the
following flesh measurements: head and body, 38 inches;
542 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
tail, 43/^ inches; hind foot, ioj4 inches; ear, 2H inches;
basal length of skull, 6j4 inches. A male specimen from
the same locality has horns 4^ inches in length by 2 inches
in spread at the tips.
Alpine Bush Duiker
Sylvicapra grimmia altivallis
Sylvicapra grimmia altivallis Heller, 191 2, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 8,
p. 10.
Range. — Alpine meadows of the Aberdare Range and
Mount Kenia.
The summit of the Aberdare Range has supplied us
with an alpine race of bush duikers. The soggy moor-
land meadows lying at an elevation of 9,000 to 11,000 feet
are inhabited by a shaggy-coated race of dark coloration
to which the name altivallis was given by Heller in 191 2.
The type specimen was shot by Colonel Roosevelt on the
summit of the range where it is crossed by the Naivasha-
Nyeri road. The spot was within a stone's throw of the
safari camp at an elevation of approximately 10,500 feet.
At this elevation the mountain range has a broad, flat-
tened summit which extends in a north and south direction
in a series of rolling downs for many miles. The downs
are clothed everywhere by a thick carpet of alpine shrubs,
chiefly various species of Jlchemilla, interspersed with a
few tussocks of rank grass and widely scattered thickets
of heather bushes. The wet, spongy ground is broken up
into hummocks and the Alchemilla shrubs grow so densely
that travel over the moorland is very much like wading
through soft snow-drifts. The duikers do not live in the
open moorland but frequent the heather thickets where
the ground is firmer. At night, however, they wander
about over these boggy and shrubby moors upon the
shrubs of which they feed. Surrounding this moorland
on the slopes of the range is a dense forest of bamboo
including a scattered growth of trees. On the lower slopes
of the range the trees form a dense forest to the exclusion
of the bamboo. This fringing forest is not inhabited by
any of the Sylvicapra duikers, which are strictly plains or
ATHI BUSH DUIKER, MALE
Kitanga, Athi Plains, B. E. A.
United States National Museum
Type Specimen and only one known
Shot by Dr. L. W. Abbott in Kilimanjaro Forest
United States National Museum
DUIKERS
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 543
bush duikers, but serves as a barrier to their migration
downward to the plains, which are inhabited by another
closely allied race, hindei. We have the same conditions
duplicated on Mount Kenia, the same race of high moun-
tain duikers, altivallis, inhabiting the moorland down to
the beginning of the dense bamboo and forest zone which
absolutely limits their lower vertical range and keeps them
apart from their close allies of the plains below.
The dorsal coloration is ochraceous-tawny, heavily
lined by black, the latter predominating and giving a
Front's brown general effect, the hair basally being
broccoli-brown. The rump is somewhat grayer than the
back. The sides of the body and the neck are tawny-olive,
the color merging gradually into the white under-parts. The
neck and the sides are without black vermiculation. The top
of the head is bright cinnamon-rufous, with a broad median
band of black from the rhinarium to the coronal tuft ; the tuft,
however, is chiefly cinnamon-rufous. The sides of the face
are lighter or cinnamon. The under-parts are white, the
hair basally being ecru-drab. The chest is mixed with fawn
centrally. The lower throat is tawny-olive, like the sides.
The throat and the median line of the chin and the upper lips
are white, but the sides of the chin are seal-brown, in marked
contrast. The hind legs are vermiculated with black, like the
rump. The pastern region above the hoofs is seal-brown,
which is continued a few inches above as a faint streak.
The forelegs are vermiculated with black, like the hind,
and the seal-brown of the pasterns is more extensive and
extends up the front of the limbs nearly to the shoulders.
The ears are clothed by short tawny hairs on the outside
and inside with long white hair.
Four specimens, two males and two females, of this
race, from the summit of the Aberdare Range, have been
examined at the National Museum. The larger male speci-
men measured in the flesh: head and body, 34 inches; tail,
4 inches; hind foot, 10^ inches; ear, 4^ inches. Length
of skull, Gyi inches. The horns of this specimen measured
4^ inches in length by i^ inches in spread at the tips.
The two female specimens are slightly larger than these
dimensions.
544 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Athi Bush Duiker
Sylvicapra grimmia hindei
Native Name: Masai, emhutuzvin.
Cephalophus abyssinicus hindei Wroughton, 1910, Ann. i^ Mag. Nat. Hist.
(8), vol. V, p. 273.
Range. — From the northern slopes of Mount Kenia
and the headwaters of the Northern Guaso Nyiro River
and Lake Baringo southward throughout the high veldt
to Kihmanjaro and central German East Africa.
The Athi bush duiker was named by Wroughton from a
specimen collected by Doctor H. S. Hinde at Fort Hall,
where he was stationed for some years as district commis-
sioner. The race is characterized by its bright ochraceous-
tawny coloration and small amount of black vermiculation
in its coat. It is readily distinguishable from the alpine
race by the lighter or seal-brown color of the pasterns and
the shorter pelage, but is indistinguishable from it in size.
Specimens of this race were collected ^by the Smithsonian
African expedition on the Athi Plains at Ngong, Bondoni,
Ulu, and Machakos; near Fort Hall, at Chief Wambugu's
village, on the northwest slope of Kenia, northeast of
Nyeri, and on the Loita Plains, near the German border.
Desert Bush Duiker
Sylvicapra grinnjiia deserti
Native Names: ?>\n?l\\\\\, ngruvu ; Duruma, j-^/j.
Sylvicapra grimmia deserti Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 17,
p. 4.
Range. — Desert coast lands from the Tana River
southward to German East Africa; inland as far as the
east slopes of Kilimanjaro and Kenia.
The desert bush duiker was recently described from
specimens collected by the Rainey expedition at Voi. It
is markedly lighter in color than the other equatorial Afri-
can races, being buffy, with almost no darker vermiculation
showing in the coat, and readily distinguishable from the
tawny or vermiculated color of the other races. The male
is distinguishable by his more vertically directed horns.
MAP 25 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE BUSH DUIKER
1 Syhicapra grimmia abyssinica 2 Syhicapra grimmia roosevelti 3 Sylvicapra grimmia nyansiz
4 Sylvicapra grimmia altivallis 5 Sylvicapra grimmia hindei 6 Sylvicapra grimmia deserti
545
546 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The dorsal color is ochraceous-buff, speckled very lightly
by narrow dusky vermiculations to the hair. The under-
parts are white, with the breast showing, but a slight ten-
dency toward the ochraceous color of hindei. The legs are
buffy, like the body, but lack the darker vermiculation and
are from the fetlocks to the hoofs solid fuscous-brown, this
color being continued upward in front as an indefinite darker
leg stripe. The tail is marked by a median black dorsal
stripe, the sides and under-surface being white, in sharp
contrast, and the tip mixed black and white. The head
is ochraceous, marked by a broad seal-brown or black median
stripe from the muzzle to the horn bases. The lips, chin,
and forethroat are white, the chin being marked on the
sides by two faint drab spots representing the blackish
patches of hindei. The eyelashes and anteorbital stripe are
black. The ears on the back are covered by a short scattered
growth of ochraceous hair, but their general color tone is
brownish, due to the dark skin showing through, while the
inner side and the base are white. The throat and the nape
are ochraceous-buff and slightly darker than the body.
The body size and proportions are quite as in the Athi
bush duiker. The horns of the type specimen are ^yi
inches in length by 25 s inches in spread at the tips. They
are directed upward from the dorsal profile of the skull at
an angle of 130 degrees. Besides the Voi specimens, others
were secured at Maji ya Chumvi and Mariakani Stations
on the Uganda Railway. Deserti is a lowland race occupy-
ing the Taru Desert as far east as the edge of the cocoa-palm
zone fringing the coast.
Subfamily Nesotragince
We have in this group antelopes of small or diminutive
size and of somewhat diverse characters, such as the pygmy
sunis and royal antelopes, the oribis and the steinboks.
They agree in having the anteorbital gland of large size
and opening on the face by a rounded pore, in having rudi-
mentary tails, and in the small size of the horns, which are
confined to the male sex. The pelage is of normal texture.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 547
The skull exhibits a large anteorbital fossa which usually
equals or exceeds the orbit in diameter, being smaller than
the orbit only in the steinbok, Raphicerus. The bones of
the snout are normal in development and arrangement, the
premaxillary bones being in contact with the nasals and a
lachrymal-nasal sinus being present. The genera included are
Nesotragus^ Ourebia, Nototragus, Raphicerus, and NeotraguSy
the last named confined to the forested area of the Congo
and the West Coast of Africa.
Key to the Genera
Anteorbital fossa large, the diameter about equalling that of the orbit;
horns heavily ringed at least at the base
Size diminutive, about equalling a hare; general coloration red-
dish; horns small, projecting straight backward in line
with the snout; lateral hoofs absent; no knee-brushes
Nesotragus
Size larger, in height equalling a goat; general coloration yellow-
ish; horns small, projecting upward at an obtuse
angle with the snout; lateral hoofs present; knee-
brushes well developed; a bare spot on the side of the
head below the ear Ourebia
Anteorbital fossa small, the diameter only one-third that of the orbit; „ - \j-if%'
horns smooth, not ringed Raphicerus /'' ""
The subfamily N eotragince of Sclater and Thomas is a
heterogeneous association of genera of small antelopes. It
has been used almost universally by systematic naturalists
as a left-over repository for the smaller species of antelopes
which are not obviously allied to the better-marked divisions
into which the larger may be arranged. It has thus come
to be an association based almost solely upon small size.
As constituted by its authors in 1892 it included the genera
Neotragus, Nesotragus, Ourebia, Raphicerus, Oreotragus, and
Madoqua. Gray, some years earlier, in 1872, proposed the
family Nesotragidce for Nesotragus, Nanotragus {Neotragus),
vr
548 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
and Pediotragus (Raphicertis), placing Neotragus {Madoqud)
in with the gazelles in the family Antilopidcs and Oreotragus,
the klipspringer, in another family, HeliotragincB, together
with Kobus, the waterbucks, and Tetraceros, the four-horned
antelopes.
This grouping by Gray is a more natural arrangement
than that adopted by later authors, for Madoqua or the dik-
dik is obviously, as witnessed by its skull characters, more
closely related to the gazelles than to any other of the
genera with which it has been placed. Oreotragus, however,
though quite distinct in general characters from its asso-
ciates in the Neotragincs, is certainly not an ally of A"o/^i^j or
Tetraceros.
In 1907 Knottnerus-Meyer removed from this assem-
blage Raphicerus and Grysbock {Nototragiis) for which he
formed the subfamily Raphicerotince, which he based upon
differences in the lachrymal bone, but left the other genera
assembled together as arranged by Sclater and Thomas.
We do not, however, consider the somewhat smaller size of
the anteorbital fossa in the steinboks of sufficient system-
atic importance to justify the erection of a subfamily for the
group. As the steinbok differs but little from the other
genera included in the Neotragina, our ideas of their relation-
ships are best expressed by leaving them in the subfamily.
In order to show the true relationships of the various
genera under consideration it is necessary to remove the very
distinct Madoqua and Rhynchotragus and place them in a
new subfamily near Aniilopince and also place Oreotragus in
a separate subfamily owing to its peculiar skull and hair
characters. Such an arrangement will give us the following
natural groups or subfamilies:
Nesotragincs: Snout normal, premaxillae long, and in con-
tact with the nasal bones which are well developed; ante-
orbital fossa well developed, usually exceeding the orbit
in size. Genera included: Nesotragus, Neotragus, Ourebia,
Raphicerus, Nototragiis.
Oreotragince: Snout somewhat shortened, the nasals very
broad and extensive in area, anteorbital fossa large as in
Nesotragincs; pelage peculiar, coarse, and pithy like that of
the American prong-horn, Antilocapra. Only one genus in-
cluded, Oreotragus, the klipspringer.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 549
Rhynchotragincs: Snout with the anterior nares greatly
enlarged in order to accommodate the proboscis; nasal bones
greatly reduced, the length not greater than the width; pre-
maxillae greatly produced in the typical genus and turned
downward at the tip; anteorbital fossa large as in the Neso-
tragince. Genera included : Rhynchotragus and Madoqua.
In the snout of Rhynchotragus we have a bony structure
quite similar to that found in Saiga, which is also a proboscis-
'Rhynchotraginae
Saiginae
^ntilopinae Nesotraginae
Oreotraginae
bearing antelope. In the saiga, however, the premaxillary
bones are confined to the tip of the maxillary bones and the
lachrymal bone is greatly enlarged and projects forward to
the narial chamber, where it forms a considerable part of
the wall, r This arrangement is a unique condition in the
BovidcE. The relationships of the subfamilies described may
be expressed in the above diagram, Gazella being assumed
to be nearest the parent stock.
Pygmy Antelope
Nesotragus
Nesotragus von Diiben, 1847, Oefvers, Akad. Forhandl., Stockholm, III, p.
221; type Nesotragus moschatus.
The pygmy antelopes are of diminutive size, about equal-
ling a hare, and of rufous or reddish coloration. The tail is
short, and the false or lateral hoofs are absent. The ante-
orbital gland opens on the side of the face by a single
rounded pore. The horns are present in the male only, and
are short, not exceeding the head in length, and project
straight backward in line with the profile of the snout.
They are heavily ringed except at the extreme tip. The
550 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
mammae are four. The skull resembles closely that of the
West African royal antelope, Nesotragus, but differs by the
presence of a maxillary-premaxillary sinus, by the larger
anteorbital fossa, and the much broader nasal bones. The
female equals the male in size. A single species is known,
moschatus, which breaks up into several geographical races,
and ranges from Mount Kenia and the Tana River south-
ward through the coast drainage area to the Zambesi River
and Zululand. It occurs also on Zanzibar Island. No fossil
species are known.
Key to the Races of moschatus
Throat with a broad collar of the dark dorsal color separating the
white areas of the upper and lower throat
Dorsal coloration dark-fuscous akeleyi
Dorsal coloration rufous and grizzled moschatus
Throat with the white areas almost continuous along midline
Color dark, rufous; legs, including pasterns, rufous; tail rufous
kirchenpaueri
Color light, tawny; legs ochraceous, pasterns dark; tail blackish
deserticola
Zanzibar Pygmy Antelope
Nesotragus moschatus moschatus
Native Name: Swahili, paa.
Nesotragus moschatus von Diiben, 1847, Oefvers, Akad. Forhandl. Stockholm,
III, p. 221.
Range. — Two small islands. Grave Island and Bawe
Island, at the entrance to Zanzibar harbor. Not known to
occur on Zanzibar Island proper.
The Zanzibar antelope was described by its discoverer.
Baron von Diiben, a Swedish naturalist who obtained it in
Zanzibar harbor in 1846. Sir John Kirk has, during his
long residence at Zanzibar as the British Consul-General, re-
ceived from the natives many specimens from the two small
islands in the harbor where they were found living amid the
dense growth of vines and bushes which clothe these small
coral islands. The Zanzibar or typical form resembles the
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 551
Kenia highland race in the wide separation on the throat
of the white areas of the upper and lower throat by a dark
collar or bridge of the dorsal color of the nape, but differs
by having the dorsal coloration decidedly rufous and
grizzled rather than blackish or fuscous.
Kenia Pygmy Antelope
Nesotragus moschatus akeleyi
Nesotragus moschatus akeleyi Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7,
p. I.
Range. — Highland forest area of Mount Kenia, the
Aberdare Range, and the Kikuyu Escarpment south as far
as Nairobi or Ngong.
The Kenia race was described from specimens collected
by Carl E. Akeley from elephant pits in the depths of the
forest on the southwestern slope of the mountain between
the altitudes of six thousand and seven thousand feet. This
race haunts only the deep forest and is quite as shy and
elusive as the bushbuck. They feed by browsing on leaves
and twigs and live a solitary life in the undergrowth flank-
ing the forest streams. When flushed from such covert
they bound away at great speed, twisting about among the
trees and never stopping until well within the security of
thick undergrowth. They are not known to utter any note
of alarm. The race may be distinguished by the body color,
which is much darker than moschatus, the dorsal region
being chestnut-brown, and the white of the throat being
separated medially for half its length by a fulvous band.
The legs are darker, with blacker pasterns, and striped in
front to the knee. The pelage is longer, the hair on the
rump being one and one-fourth inches long.
The median dorsal area of the body is chestnut-brown,
changing on the lower sides to vinaceous-tawny. The legs
are ochraceous-tawny, and the pasterns fuscous, with a black
stripe in front to the knees. The tail is fuscous, and some-
what darker than the body, and is marked below by a nar-
row white line. The crown of the head is bay. The snout
is marked by a broad streak of fuscous, and a small white
spot above the eye. The cheeks are vinaceous-tawny in
552 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
contrast to the white chin, Hps, and throat. The back of the
ears is fuscous, and the inner side and the base are whitish.
The middle throat has a broad band, four inches long, of vi-
naceous-tawny, separating the white of the upper and lower
throat. The under-parts are white, with a streak of white
down the inside of each leg to the knee. The sexes are alike
in color and length of hair, the hair on the forehead in the
male being no longer or denser than in the female. The newly-
born young resemble the adults minutely in color. It is a rare
antelope, and only a limited number of specimens have been
available for study. They are chiefly from Mount Kenia,
Kijabe, and Ngong in the immediate vicinity of Nairobi.
Desert Pygmy Antelope
Nesotragus moschatus deserticola
Native Name: Duruma, palla.
Nesotragus moschatus deserticola Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61,
No. 7, p. 2.
Range. — Desert or nyika country flanking the moist
littoral zone of the coast district, ranging, no doubt, from
the Tana River southward to the German border.
The type specimens were collected by the describer at
the railway station of Maji ya Chumvi in the Taru Desert,
in which district they were found inhabiting dense, impene-
trable thickets of thorny bushes made up of several species
of acacias, aloes, euphorbias, and sansevierias. At dusk
they were occasionally seen on the edge of the thickets or
crossing over paths and wood roads intersecting them. A
mated pair were found associated, but no further instance
of their association in pairs was observed.
The color is much lighter than that of moschatus, being
cinnamon-rufous, and only slightly darker on the median dor-
sal region. The white of the throat is almost continuous, be-
ing broken only by a narrow band of fulvous one inch wide.
The legs are light-colored and fulvous, but the pasterns are
dark-fuscous. The tail is very light whitish, only the median
dorsal line being dusky brown. The pelage is short, the hair
on the rump being but one inch long. The body size equals
that of moschatus.
litj MtJUaraabIt
Lorian
.Swatifp ■
^'' I "o
MAP 26 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE PYGMY ANTELOPE
1 Nesotragus mosckatus akeleyi 2 Nesotragus moschatus deserticola
3 Nesotragus moschatus kirchenpauri
553
554 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The dorsal color of an adult male is bright cinnamon-
rufous, the median area being only slightly darker, or hazel.
The sides are cinnamon-buff, contrasting very little with the
white under-parts. The legs are ochraceous-buff, lighter and
brighter than the sides, and the pasterns are fuscous. The
tail is grayish in effect, the sides and the under-surface being
white, and the tip and the dorsal stripe fuscous. The crown
of the head is cinnamon-rufous, bordered below by a whitish
supraocular stripe. The midline of the snout and the orbital
area are dusky. The cheeks and the sides of the head are cin-
namon-rufous. The upper lips, chin, and throat are white,
but the middle of the throat has the white areas separated by
a narrow band of fulvous one inch wide. The ears are dusky
on back, like the snout, and the inner side and base are
whitish. The under-parts are silky-white, with a white stripe
extending down the inner side of each leg to the knee. The
sexes are alike in color.
Measurements of an average adult in the flesh: head and
body, 223^ inches; tail, ^}<l inches; hind foot, 6yi inches;
ear, 2^ inches. Greatest length of skull, 4>^ inches. Horns
of an adult male, 2}i inches long by if^ inches spread.
Kilimanjaro Pygmy Antelope
Nesotragus moschatus kirchenpaueri
Native Name: Wachaga, sinii (Abbott).
Nesotragus kirchenpaueri Pagenstecher, 1885, Jahr.-Ber. Mus., Hamburg, II,
p. 36.
Range. — Highland forest area of Mount Kilimanjaro
ranging down to three thousand feet.
Doctor G. A. Fischer during his explorations on Kili-
manjaro in 1883 secured the type specimen of the species
which Pagenstecher later named kirchenpaueri. In 1888
Doctor Abbott obtained an immature male from the natives
while at Taveta. These two specimens represent all the
available material from Kilimanjaro. The type is an adult
mounted male in the Hamburg Museum, where it has been
examined. It is somewhat darker than Abbott's specimen,
but shows the same extensive white areas on the throat and
the dark pasterns which characterize this race.
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
556 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
cool country; and we also found another form, closely re-
lated to the first, abundant in the hot plains on both sides of
the upper White Nile. The two habitats of these two va-
rieties of the same species were very unlike; the Lado plains
were physically and climatically more like the parts of East
Africa from which the oribi is absent; perhaps some un-
detected peculiarity in the flora conditioned this broken dis-
tribution, which otherwise seems unaccountable. However,
oribi are everywhere locally distributed. They live without
water in some places, at least at Maji ya Chumvi, for in-
stance, and in the coast desert strip. They resort to spots
of bare earth for dunging. These patches of dung every-
where characterize their haunts.
The oribi is normally a skulking, cover-haunting, high
grass and bush loving antelope, like the duiker, steinbok,
and even reedbuck; and we often found it in the same patch
of cover with both duiker and reedbuck, and behaving in
exactly the same way. But, unlike all three, it also, when
the long grass is burnt, wanders freely over the open plains
and under these circumstances behaves precisely like a
gazelle. The reedbuck is too big to hide when on plains
of this kind, and rarely ventures out on them, away from
cover. The steinbok and even the duiker venture on
them, but when alarmed take advantage of the first patch
of scanty cover and crouch. But the oribi, when out on
such plains, never hides, never seeks cover, is always alert
and on the watch, and trusts to its sharp senses, wariness,
and speed for safety. In these respects, when on the plains,
they behave exactly like Tommies, and, like Tommies, are
often found in parties of ten or a dozen individuals ; but such
a party does not form a true herd, and when alarmed tends
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 557
to split up into little groups, which may not come together
again. Normally the oribi prefers to go singly or in couples.
On the short-grass plains it must be stalked like a gazelle;
elsewhere it must be shot like a duiker or steinbok. The
oribi is a grass-eater. We generally found it near water,
but in the Lado we came across individuals in the dry noon-
day haunts of the giant eland, so far from water that we
doubted whether they drank, although the vegetation was
so parched that it was hard to believe that they could get
along without drinking. Unlike the duiker and steinbok,
the oribi is one of the noisy, whistling antelope; its squealing
whistle of alarm or curiosity is loud and shrill, entirely dis-
tinct from the whistling of either the klipspringer or the
reedbuck. We have heard an oribi and a reedbuck each
whistle, one after the other, as they sprang from the same
patch of brush and made off with the usual pig-like rush
under cover of grass so tall that neither could be seen.
When in the open they run very fast, with great bounds;
after going a couple of hundred yards they turn and face
the hunter with their large ears thrown forward. The oribi
offers a difficult mark to the rifleman. Its flesh is delicious.
We found the oribi moving and feeding at all hours of
the day and night. Once in the Lado we came on a couple
of individuals unconcernedly feeding under the blazing sun
at high noon, on a patch of short, green grass, while a fire
was rolling through the long, dry grass close on either side
of them.
Key to the Races of montana
Tail like the back in color, or with only a few black hairs at the tip
Coat bright ochraceous-tawny, heavy
Horns weakly ringed, smooth for most of their length
montana
558 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Horns heavily ringed for half their length cottoni
Coat dull, cinnamon-brown; horns well ringed aquatoria
Tail black; contrasting conspicuously with the dorsal coloration
Coat ochraceous-tawny, long; horns not compressed or keeled
kenya
Coat clay color or bufF, short; horns compressed and furnished with
a keel on the posterior side haggardi
Abyssinian Oribi
Ourebia montana montana
Native Name: Abyssinian, /ac^a.
Antilope mo7itana Cretzschmar, 1826, Atl. RiippeU's Reise, Saug., p. 11,
pi. III.
Range. — Nile watershed of the Abyssinian highlands, as
far east as the edge of the Nile lowlands and south to the
headwaters of the Omo River and the highlands north of
Lake Rudolf.
The Abyssinian oribi has been known since RiippeU's
early explorations in Abyssinia. The type specimen was
obtained by one of his collectors on the Fazogloa Moun-
tains, in close proximity to the Blue Nile, well down in the
foot-hill region of the Abyssinian highlands and at the ex-
treme western limit of its range. Riippell also met with it
on the plateau region at elevations of six thousand feet or
more. More recently Major Powell-Cotton collected speci-
mens near the western edge of the highlands, west of Addis
Abbaba and Lake Tana. The Abyssinian race resembles
closely the Uasin Gishu race in color. Both are highland
forms, having long, heavy coats of a bright, tawny color.
The Abyssinian may be distinguished by its less heavily
ringed and shorter horns. The horns are ringed for the
basal third, the rings being quite low and less distinct than
in the more southern race. The horn length averages four
inches, which is one-half inch less than the Uasin Gishu race.
From the Nile oribi this race may be recognized by its
brighter color and longer hair, but resembles it closely in
horn dimensions. Gilbert Blaine has recently described
a new race founded on a specimen collected by W. N.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 559
McMillan sixty miles south of Addis Abbaba, near Lake
Helene. The character given for the race, absence of the
dark crown patch, is, however, a sex affair and has no racial
value. The dark crown patch is lacking in all the males of
the East African races and present only in the females and
young. Occasionally there is a slight indication of it in
some males.
Nile Oribi
Ourehia montana cequatoria
Native Names: Dinka, lohdj ; Bongo, heggoleh.
Ourebia montana aquatoriaHeWer, 191 2, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol.60, No. 8, p. 12.
Range. — Nile Valley, from the Albert Nyanza north-
ward through the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Gondokoro regions
to the Sobat River.
The type of the Nile oribi was shot by Colonel Roose-
velt in the vicinity of Rhino Camp in the Lado Enclave.
Both Heuglin and Schweinfurth met with this race in the
Bahr el Ghazal on their journeys of exploration in the '6o's.
In the Nile Valley the oribi is not a local beast, but is gen-
erally distributed and has been reported by the great ma-
jority of travellers who have visited the region.
The Nile race is intermediate between the Abyssinian
and the Uasin Gishu oribi. It differs from the latter by its
more brownish coloration, the coat being cinnamon-brown
and somewhat shorter, but resembles it closely in shape and
size of horns. From the typical race of Abyssinia it may
be distinguished by its heavier-ringed and larger horns and
duller coloration.
The dorsal color of an adult male is cinnamon-brown,
vermiculated by Vandyke-brown. The neck, rump, and
sides are without the darker vermiculation, being tawny in
color. The crown of the head is bright rufous, bordered on
the sides by a broad white supraorbital band. The snout
and the sides of the face are buffy. The rhinarium is bor-
dered above by a broccoli-brown patch. The tail is tawny,
like the rump, with a few black hairs at the tip, and bordered
below by a few white hairs. The limbs are tawny, like the
sides, but the clefts of the hoofs and the pasterns are whitish.
The ears on the outside are buffy, with the extreme tip seal-
560 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
brown, and lined on the Inside by long white hairs. The
under-parts and the Inside of the Hmbs are silky white, the
hair being white to the roots. The chest Is suffused with
buffy, and the throat Is ochraceous-buff. The chin, upper
lips, and gular region are white.
The flesh measurements of this race are: head and body,
37 inches; tall, 3>^ inches; hind foot, ii Inches; ear, 4^4
Inches. Average length of skull: 6}4 Inches In males, 6^
Inches In females. The usual length of horn is 4 inches.
The longest horns in a series of seven measure 4^ inches.
A series of twenty specimens have been examined repre-
senting the Lado Enclave, NImule, Gondokoro, and the
highlands one hundred miles east of it, and the Bahr el
Ghazal. There is no apparent difference in specimens from
opposite sides of the Nile. Considering the low altitude
and the torrid nature of the Nile Valley, this race shows
comparatively slight color and pelage difference from cot-
toni of the cold highlands of the Uasin Gishu Plateau.
Uasin Gishu Oribi
Ourebia montana coUoni
Native Name: Kavirondo (Jaluo), ogundi.
Ourebia coUoni Thomas, 1908, Ann. U Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 387.
Range. — Western slope and crest of the Mau Escarp-
ment, from the southern shores of the Victoria Nyanza
northward beyond Mount Elgon to the headwaters of the
Turkwell River.
Throughout the grassy downs of the Uasin Gishu Plateau
the oribi is abundantly distributed. In this locality Major
Powell-Cotton collected the type of the race which now
bears his name, but Jackson was the first sportsman to record
the oribi from the Uasin Gishu, where he met with It on his
pioneer trip to Uganda in 1889. Holllster, the assistant
curator of mammals at the National Museum, described In
1910, from a skull collected on the Uasin Gishu by J. J. White,
a species which he named microdon, basing the name on the
small size and the straight outline of the cheek-teeth. This
skull, however, represents the extreme variation In size and
shape of teeth In coUoni. The large series of skulls In the
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 561
National Museum show every intermediate condition, from
skulls with large teeth, having tooth rows with convex out-
lines, to small teeth with the straight tooth row of microdon.
The characters by which the race may be known are the
bright, tawny coloration, long pelage, and the large size and
heavily ringed horns. In horn length it exceeds all other
East African races. The average horn length is 4>^ inches,
but horns over 5 inches in length are not uncommon. The
longest specimen in the series of ten males in the National
Museum is ^^ inches. Ward recorded one of 6>^ inches
taken near the Uasin Gishu Plateau. The flesh measure-
ments of an average male are: head and body, 39 inches;
tail, 4 inches; hind foot, 4%^ inches; ear, 4 inches. Skull
length: male, 6yl inches; female, 6}4.
Specimens have been examined from the Uasin Gishu
Plateau, the headwaters of the Amala River, on the German
border, and Karungu, on the east shore of the Victoria
Nyanza. They are known to occur at Londiana, near the
highest point reached by the Uganda Railway, and also
north of Elgon as far as the highlands forming the crest of
the Nile-Rudolf watershed.
Kenia Oribi
Ourebia montana kenyce
Ourehia kenyce Minertzhagen, 1905, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 169.
Range. — Limited to a small area along the Tana River
on the south slope of Mount Kenia, from Fort Hall east to
Embu Station and southward as far as the Ithangi Hills.
The Kenia oribi has recently been described by its dis-
coverer. Lieutenant Minertzhagen from specimens which he
collected near Fort Hall. The race has a very restricted
habitat of a few square miles, and on this account has re-
mained so long unknown. It is allied more closely to the
coast oribi, haggardi, with which it was no doubt one time
connected by way of the Tana Valley.
Like haggardly it is distinguishable from other races by
its black tail. In coloration it may be described as quite
intermediate between the tawny cottoni and the clay color
or buff of the coast race. From haggardi it is easily dis-
562 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
tinguished by the bright ochraceous coloration, long pelage,
and absence of a keel on the posterior border of the horns.
In size or proportions it is not distinguishable from the other
races. The average length of specimens in the flesh is
40 inches. The horns are rather long, averaging, according
to the series collected by the describer, 5J^ inches.
Coast Oribi
Ourebia montana haggardi
Native Names: Swahili, lay a; Duruma, darendari.
Ourebia haggardi Thomas, 1895, Ann. y Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 187.
Range. — Coast of British East Africa, from the Lamu
Islands and the Tana River south to the German border
and as far inland as the eastern edge of the desert nyika.
The coast oribi was first met with by Vice-Consul Hag-
gard, of Lamu. In 1887 he sent to the British Museum from
Lamu several skulls which were eventually described by
Thomas as a new race. A year or two after Haggard's
discovery three of the pioneer sportsmen of East Africa,
Harvey, Hunter, and Jackson, met with the oribi in the
Tana River district. Although so long known by its skull
and horns, the coast oribi has remained to this day without
a description of its coloration. This is due to the absence
of skins in museums. A considerable number of other species
of antelope are in a similarly unknown state, that is, they
are well known to sportsmen by their horns and heads, and
a considerable number are shot annually and recorded on
the registers of various game wardens; notwithstanding,
they remain unrepresented in the large museums by com-
plete specimens of the skins. Notable examples of this sort
are the giant eland, Nile lechwi, Hunter antelope, and
many races of the commoner species which are confined to
isolated districts.
The dorsal color of the coast oribi is much lighter than
that of any of the inland forms. An adult male collected
at Mariakani Station by Heller is a uniform clay color on
the dorsal surface, the crown and forehead being uniform
in color with the back and without the contrast shown in
the other races. The ridge of the snout is hair-brown, and
MAP 27 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE ORIBI
1 Ourebia montana montana 2 Ourehia montana crqualoria 3 Ourebia montana coltoni
4 Ourebia montana kenyce 5 Ourebia montana haggardi
563
564 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
shows considerable contrast with the Hght clay color of
the sides. The white areas of the head consist of a broad
stripe above the eye, the lips, chin, forethroat, and inside of
the ears. The back of the ears are clay color, with the tips
broadly margined by umber-brown. There is a conspicu-
ous bare black space below the ear. The tail is seal-brown
or blackish, in marked contrast to the clay-colored rump
and white border of the basal part. The lower sides of the
body and the legs are somewhat lighter than the back,
being ochraceous-buff, and darkest on the outside. The
breast and the belly are pure white and sharply defined
against the darker sides. The inguinal region is black and
hairless with the exception of the two rosettes of white pithy
hair marking the opening of the inguinal sacks.
The flesh measurements of this specimen were: head and
body, 38 inches ; hind foot, i ij^ inches ; ear, 4 inches. Length
of skull, 6}i inches. Horns, 4^ inches long. The longest
horns recorded by Ward from the Tana Valley are ^yi inches.
One of the striking characters of this race are the heaviness
or prominence of the basal rings and the compressed shape
of the horn so as to form a keel along the posterior margin.
Specimens have been recorded by sportsmen from the vicin-
ity of Lamu, the lower Tana Valley, the Sabaki River, and
the station of Maji ya Chumvi.
The Steinbok
Raphicerus
The steinbok is at once recognizable from all other an-
telopes by its bright sorrel-red color and small size. It is a
trim-built little buck with well-rounded hind quarters and
slender legs. The tail is not evident to the eye, being a mere
rudiment, as in the klipspringer. A striking peculiarity is
the enormous development of the ears, which exceed in size
those of most other genera and are especially marked among
the narrow-eared antelopes of the plains. Such great ear
development is no doubt due to its habit of lying in cover
out of sight, depending chiefly upon its scent and hearing
to detect the approach of enemies. Directly in front of the
eye is placed the small, rounded opening of the anteorbital
gland, which is quite reduced in size. The male is armed
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 565
with short horns which rise vertically above the orbits and
are without rings. False hoofs are lacking in this genus, but
are present in the closely allied grysbok of South Africa.
The skull shows considerable peculiarity of structure in the
small size of the anteorbital fossa, which is a small, deep pit
much less in size than in the other genera of the subfamily.
The sinus between the nasal bones and the anteorbital pit is
of very large size and quite equal in area to the pit. The
snout is of moderate length and has very broad premaxillary
bones bordering the nasal aperture. The sexes are alike in
color and equal in size. The newly born young are in no
way different in color from the adults, but their pelage is
somewhat more woolly in texture.
The steinbok reaches in British East Africa its most
northern limit. From the highlands near the base of Kenia
it ranges southward along the East Coast to the immediate
vicinity of the Cape. It, however, does not occur west of
the Victoria Nyanza or Tanganyika drainage. The genus
consists of a single species, campestrisy with two or more
geographical races, the most northern of which reaches
British East Africa. No fossil species are known.
Masailand Steinbok
Raphicerus campestris neumanni
Native Names: Swahili, ishah; Masai, olbivansas ; Kikuyu, thiya.
Pediotragus neumanni Matschie, 1894; Sitz.-Ber. Nat. Freu. Bed., p. 122.
Range. — From German East Africa northward through-
out the highlands of the Rift Valley and coast drainage area
to the northern slopes of Kenia and Elgon, in British East
Africa; east as far as the coast lowlands and west to the
shores of the Victoria Nyanza.
The Masai steinbok was named by Doctor Matschie for
Herr Oscar Neumann, who was one of the pioneer natural-
ists of East Africa. He collected the type specimen at
Mount Gurui in central German East Africa. A specimen
collected south of the Victoria Nyanza by Speke and Grant
forms the first record of the species in equatorial Africa.
Jackson, Willoughby, and other sportsmen who visited Kili-
manjaro in the early days found the steinbok in abundance
566 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
on the plains at the foot of the mountain. In 1908 Lonn-
berg separated as a race specimens from Lake Natron,
owing to the presence of the dark snout spot, a feature which
Matschie had neglected to mention in his description of
neumanni. An examination of the type specimen in Ber-
lin, however, shows the existence of the dark snout patch,
which is a characteristic marking of the steinbok through-
out its whole range, from the Cape to the equator.
The little steinbok is common over most of East Africa.
It is a brush or grass antelope, depending for safety upon
cover, but it is not found in the thick forests, and it is found
even on the treeless plains where the grass is long and there
are patches of bush. It is a solitary little creature, usually
found alone, although occasionally one runs across a buck
and doe or a doe and a well-grown fawn. It both grazes and
browses, and, although it is not found in desert country, it
seems fairly independent of drinking. The contents of the
stomach of one shot at Nyeri included twigs, leaves, and
berries of the thorny nightshade, Sclanum campactylanum.
This was the only stomach examined. Steinboks are not
shy. We saw them feeding at all hours, like the oribi and
the small gazelle, often on bare plains. When alarmed they
dash for cover, and when in cover they lie very close. We
have mentioned oribi and Tommies in connection with stein-
bok, because the three little antelopes, although often found
in precisely similar ground, have such contrasting habits.
The Tommy never seeks to escape observation, always
avoids cover, always stands up when it spies danger, and
trusts to its speed and sharp senses for safety. When alarmed
it may run a mile or two, and then halts on the bare plain.
The oribi, if on open plains of short grass, behaves precisely
like a gazelle, but if in long grass or bush cover hides like a
■IHSi^L. B^ ' ^K^'
«
l^^^^^^lH^^Bfj ^iiiirt^SftfTiii
i^s.'^fflH
^9
ak1',li:y PYiiNn' axtki.opi;, male
Nairobi (Ngong), B. E. A.
lASIX (,ISHU ORIBI, ADUI.I MAM
Sliiit b> IliL'.Jc.re Roosevelt, L'asin Gis^hu PlaK-au
■HPi?^^f^^
B411^»in-«^|P^
i^^''
ii
3^iLr
^^^H^^I^^fr,^**^^^3KSS^^^^9H
A
ml^
■^^
n
mM
NILE BUSHBLICK, IMMATLTRE MALE
From Rhino Camp, Upper Nile
MASAILAND STEINBOK, ADULT MALE
Shot by Sir Alfred Pease, Kapiti Plains
UGANl) \ I I
Shot by The<)d<.[c R
\l I
I 1 M. I LIllJl
MASAILAND KLIPSPRINCER, MALE
Shut hv The.jdore Roosevelt, Luita Plain^, B. F. A.
YOUNG HIGHLAND BUSHBUCK
Loita Plains
NAIVASHA KIRK DIK-DIK, ADULT MALE
Lake Naivasha
BUSHBUCK AND SMALL ANTELOPES
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 567
duiker or steinbok. The steinbok, no matter where it is,
always seeks to hide, and always lies down when it spies
danger, unless it thinks itself observed from near by. When
forced to run, it races off for a few hundred yards, and lies
down in another bit of cover. A Tommy lying down always
feels at a disadvantage, and springs to its feet at the sus-
picion of danger. A steinbok regards lying down as its natu-
ral attitude at the approach of danger. Time and again
we have seen a steinbok, when we were approaching from a
distance, lie down beside or behind some bush or tuft of
grass — it is astonishing how little cover will serve its needs
— and watch us with head erect. If we approached too
closely, or if it had been throughly alarmed and had already
run once, it would lie with its head outstretched.
It is a very curious fact that an antelope which trusts so
much to cover and concealment and to escaping observation,
and which does not live in thick cover, yet possesses a reveal-
ing instead of a concealing coloration. The bright reddish
of the steinbok's coat harmonizes with no background in
which we have seen the animal, and never in our experience
tends to conceal it. Doubtless there are exceptional cases
where the coloration does tend to conceal it — there is no
conceivable type of coloration which might not once in sev-
eral thousand times harmonize with its environment — but
we never happened to come across such cases. If the little
animal was where it could be seen at all, and where any color
could reveal it, in our experience the bright reddish coat
always tended to reveal it. Yet no antelope trusts more
persistently to hiding, to escaping observation. We have
seen one when pursued slip round a small bush and lie flat
with head and neck outstretched; but its color was too con-
568 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
spicuous to permit it to escape being seen. If in thick grass
it cannot be seen because of the physical screen of the cover.
If in bush, or lying where there is shifting light and shadow,
even from thin little trees, it may be difficult to make out,
because under such circumstances, the play of shade and
sunlight, the varying vistas, the interposed twiggery and
patches of leafage, and the many different contours and color
values tend to make it difficult for the eye to pick out any
motionless object of any color. Moreover, absolute immo-
bility will often render any object, of no matter what color
or shape, likely to escape hasty notice. But, after making
all allowances, it seems certain that on the whole the color-
ation of the little steinbok is revealing; and its habits are
such that concealing coloration would certainly be a benefit
to it; and yet it is common, and it persists in the land much
longer than most antelopes after man appears. Evidently
the other qualities which have helped it in the struggle for
life have so far outweighed the matter of coloration that it
has been unaffected by the latter, or so little affected that
the coloration has never become concealing.
The Masai steinbok is distinguishable from the typical
race from South Africa with difficulty. The general color-
ation is somewhat darker and the white areas about the
eyes and muzzle are more extensive. Specimens from the
Zambesi River which we have compared are scarcely distin-
guishable by coloration or size from British East African
specimens. The presence of a dark crescent on the crown
between the ears in the typical race is sometimes given as
a character, but this dark patch is quite variable and is
present in half the specimens from East Africa examined,
irrespective of locality or sex.
The color of the upper parts is bright sorrel or vinaceous-
tawny. The hair is everywhere minutely speckled with white.
MAP 28— DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE STEINBOK
1 Raphicerus campestris neumanni
669
570 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
owing to the narrow white hair tips. The sides of the body
are somewhat Hghter, but the dorsal color is sharply defined
against the white breast and belly. The legs are less pink-
ish than the body, usually being uniform cinnamon-buff,
with the inside white as far down as the knees and hocks.
The tail is very short, triangular in shape, and not differen-
tiated by color or length of hair from the rump. The lower
surface is naked. The hinder surfaces of the thighs are white
in contrast to the sorrel sides, the hair on this portion of
the body being lengthened considerably and forming a rump
patch. The crown of the head is bright tawny, and is
marked by a narrow, dark-brown crescent between the ears.
The midline of the snout is marked by a triangular-shaped,
seal-brown patch which extends from the muzzle half-way
to the eyes. The sides of the head are vinaceous, and the
eye is surrounded by a white ring. The lips, chin, and upper
throat are white. The ears are grayish, margined narrowly
by dark-brown; the back covered by short, buffy hair, and
the inside by lines of long, white hair.
Specimens in the flesh average 33 inches in length of
head and body; tail, 2>^ inches; hind foot, 10 inches; ear,
4>^ inches. Length of skull, 5>^ inches. The largest skull
in a series of forty specimens is that of a female, which has a
length of 53^ inches. The horns average about 3^ inches in
length. The record in the National Museum is a specimen
with horns 5 inches in length, shot by Sir Alfred Pease at
his farm in the Mua Hills. Ward's record for British East
Africa exceeds this specimen by J4, of an inch.
The steinbok is very abundantly distributed over the
high veldt region of British East Africa, but does not occur
in the dry desert scrub of the nyika. The vertical range
extends from three thousand to nine thousand feet. Speci-
mens have been examined from the Kapiti and Loita Plains,
northern slopes of Mount Kenia, Lake Naivasha, and the
Kedong Valley. The steinbok is peculiarly uniform in col-
oration throughout its range and is not separable into ge-
ographical races in British East Africa.
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 571
The Klipspringers
Subfamily Oreotragina
The klipspringers are distinguishable from all other
African antelopes by their coarse, bristly, and pithy hair
and by the very narrow, cylindrical hoofs, the extreme tips
of which alone support the animal's weight. Besides these
peculiarities the skull exhibits a marked brevity of snout
with immense anteorbital glands on its sides, which open in
front of the eye by a large, rounded pore. The horns are
short, seldom exceeding the head in length, and project ver-
tically above the eyes, being wide apart basally and parallel
throughout their length. The body is rather heavily built,
and the legs are short. The hoofs are rounded at the tips
and the false hoofs are very broad. The inguinal region is
without pits or sacks in the skin. The female has four
mammae. The skull is remarkable for the large size of its
anteorbital fossa, which covers the entire side of the snout,
almost equalling the orbit in area. The nasal bones are
very broad and short, spreading out posteriorly so as to
make them triangular in shape. The sinus between the
nasal bones and the lachrymal is small and narrow or
obsolete.
The Klipspringer
Oreotragus
Oreotragus A. Smith, 1834, S. Af. Quart. Journ., II, p. 212; type 0. oreotragtis.
The klipspringer is the only African antelope which has
made an attempt to occupy the place in nature taken by the
wild sheep and goats of the northern hemisphere, the
chamois of Europe, the goral of Asia, and the white ante-
lope goat of America. He has succeeded remarkably well
and has widely differentiated himself from his kin. In the
matter of hoofs fitted for rock-climbing he has become
specialized beyond all other hoofed mammals, and has pro-
duced for himself a very narrow but elongate hoof upon the
extreme tip of which he walks, instead of upon the whole
base. The narrow tips give him a firm footing on the
steepest of rocks where often no foothold is visible on the
572 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
closest inspection. We have in vain striven to find even
minute inequalities on cliffs up which we have seen him
easily make his way. He is, however, one of the smallest
of the antelopes, so that he has little difficulty in carrying
his weight on the tiny points of his stubby hoofs. The klip-
springer has low withers, with full, rounded hind quarters,
is short-legged, and has rather a heavily built appearance.
He is abbreviated at both his extremities, being extremely
short-necked, short-snouted, and short-tailed; indeed, the
tail is a mere rudiment, not evident to the eye. In pelage
he is strikingly peculiar among African antelopes. The hair
is very coarse and pithy and closely resembles that of the
American pronghorn and to a less degree the hair of the
whitetail deer.
The horns are short and parallel in direction, arising
vertically above the orbits, and are ringed at the base.
They are usually confined to the male sex, one race alone
exhibiting horns in the female sex. There is no sexual dif-
ference in coloration or size, nor is there any appreciable
age difference in coloration, the young being minutely simi-
lar to the adults in appearance. The genus to-day comprises
a single species with several geographical races. One fossil
species is known from the Pliocene of France. Klipspring-
ers are confined to eastern Africa from the highlands of
Abyssinia and the adjacent Red Sea coast south through the
Rift Valley and coast drainage to the extreme southern tip
of Africa.
This lively and interesting little antelope is found on the
rocky hills throughout East Africa. In the ordinary East
African form the females have horns, in the desert form
which occurs from the Northern Guaso Nyiro northward the
females are hornless. It is an extraordinary climber and
jumper, bounding among the cliffs with absolute sure-footed-
ness. The tiny hoofs — which, like the brittle hair, are unlike
those of any other African antelope — enable it to perch on
the smallest pinnacle, and to climb by means of the most
trifling cracks and irregularities in a rock surface; and it will
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 573
bound down a cliff like a rubber ball. The gait is somewhat
like the stiff-legged bounding of a Rocky Mountain blacktail
deer. It certainly serves wonderfully well up and down the
precipitous slopes, grassy or rocky, in which the klipspringer
dwells. The little beast often grazes on the level ground at
the foot of the rocks — by daytime if the country is unin-
habited, otherwise at night — but on the slightest alarm it
betakes itself at full speed toward its fastnesses. The dung
is usually deposited at particular spots on the rocky hillside
or cliffs. It utters a shrill whistle, usually heard when its
curiosity is excited or when it is apprehensive but not yet
much frightened. It both browses and grazes, feeding and
resting alternately, and at various intervals throughout the
twenty-four hours. Seemingly it sometimes goes for long
periods without drinking. The northern or desert form cer-
tainly does not drink, but lives without water. The stomach
contents of specimens of this race consisted chiefly of leaves
and twigs of two small trees, Strychnos and Dodonea. It is
usually found singly or in couples, but occasionally half a
dozen individuals will gather together on a particular feed-
ing-ground.
The klipspringer is an alert little creature, always on
the lookout for foes, and trusting not to escaping notice but
to seeing its foes first and then escaping among the rocks.
Yet its coat harmonizes so well with its ordinary background
that it is often difficult to make out, even when its alarm
whistle shows that it is not consciously hiding. Indeed,
this is one of the very few antelopes that may at times be
aided in escaping notice by its countershading. Appar-
ently its coloration may fairly be called concealing, and yet
apparently this quality of its coloration is of little or no aid
574 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
to it, because of its habits. The case is directly the reverse
of that of the steinbok, which does continually hide and
skulk and try to escape observation, and yet has a colora-
tion which is on the whole undoubtedly of revealing quality.
From these facts it seems probable that in neither case has
the color of the coat been developed for any utilitarian
reason.
Key to the Races of oreotragus
Female hornless; body color uniform, legs lighter than the body in
color and marked by a wide black band above the hoof
aureus
Female horned; rump lighter and grayer than the back, legs not
lighter than the body in color and without black hoof band
schillings i
Marsabit Klipspringer
Oreotragus oreotragus aureus
Oreotragus oreotragus aureus Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 13,
p. 7.
Range. — From the drainage area of the Northern Guaso
Nyiro River and the northern slopes of Mount Kenia north-
ward to Lake Rudolf, west as far as Mount Elgon, and east
in the lower desert region as far as the limits of the higher
mountains, but not occurring in this region south of the
Tana River.
The Marsabit race was recently described from speci-
mens collected by the Rainey expedition on Mount Lolo-
lokwi, a large table-topped mountain lying between the
Northern Guaso Nyiro and Mount Marsabit. The race
is distinguishable from the Masailand klipspringer by the
absence of horns in the female and the uniform color of the
dorsal surface, the rump coloration showing no contrast in
tone to that of the anterior part of the body. It is more
closely allied to the Abyssinian klipspringer, with which
it is in agreement in the character of the hornless female,
DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 575
but rrtay be distinguished by its lighter-colored legs, brighter
golden body color, more pronounced or extensive black
bands above the hoofs, and dark-rufous forehead and
crown.
The dorsal color is bright buff-yellow, and is everywhere
speckled by seal-brown, owing to the basal color of the hair
showing beneath the narrow yellow tips. The yellow is
purest on the neck. The midline of the back shows most
blackish, and is uniform in color with the rump. The sides
are sharply defined against the pure white of the under-
parts. The tail is not differentiated by color or longer hair
from the rump. The forelegs are lighter-colored than the
back, being buffy, with less of the dark hair bases showing
through on the outside, and the inside is uniform whitish,
like the under-parts. A heavy black band encircles the
hoofs and reaches half-way to the false hoofs. The hind
legs are like the fore, but the inside from the hocks to the
hoof is uniform in color with the outside. The crown of
the head is russet, lined heavily by black. The snout is
buffy on the sides, like the legs, but the median portion is
blackish. The lips and chin are whitish. The midline of
the throat is buff-yellow, without darker vermiculations.
The backs of the ears are clothed by short, buffy hairs, but
the central portion and margin are blackish, except on the
lower inner border, which is marked by a white bar or spot.
The inside and the base of the ear are whitish.
The Marsabit race is practically identical in size with the
Masailand form. An average specimen gives the following
measurements in the flesh: head and body, 33 inches; tail,
^yi inches; hind foot, 9 inches; ear, 3^ inches. Greatest
length of skull, 5^2 inches. A single male is in the collec-
tion. The horns of this specimen measure 3^ inches.
Specimens of this race were secured on the summit of
Mount Lololokwi, at six thousand feet altitude, and on the
rocky kopjes which dot the west Kenia plateau. They were
also seen on the slopes of Mount Uaragess, but nowhere
were they encountered in the low desert region, and it is
doubtful if they occur below an altitude of three thousand
feet.
576 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Masailand Klipspringer
Oreotragus oreotragus schillingsi
Native Name: Masai, engine.
Oreotragus schillingsi Neumann, 1902, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu., Berl., p. 172.
Range. — From the Rift Valley in central German East
Africa northward to Lake Baringo and the southern slopes
of Mount Kenia, east to the southern shores of the Victoria
Nyanza, and west to the lower edge of the highland country,
at least as far as Kitui and Makindu. Altitudinal range
from three thousand to nine thousand feet.
The Masailand klipspringer was named for Herr Schil-
lings, the pioneer flash-light photographer of Africa, who has
given us a vivid pictorial account in "With Flashlight and
Rifle" of his exploits with the game animals of the Kili-
manjaro district of German East Africa. He secured the
type specimens on the small hill of Ngaptuk, situated north-
west of Kilimanjaro and very close to the British East Africa
boundary. Jackson was the first sportsman to report the
klipspringer from British East Africa. In 1894, in "Big
Game Shooting," he devotes a few lines to it and states that
it is irregularly distributed upon rocky hills from the Taita
district to the Turkwell River. The klipspringer, however,
has been long known to inhabit South Africa and Abyssinia,
the two extreme points of its range.
The Masailand klipspringer is at once distinguishable
from all other races by the presence of horns in the female.
This striking character was not known to the describer of
the race, Herr Neumann, who based his differences on slight
color discriminations. His material consisted of some un-
sexed skins with horned skulls which, he assumed, were all
males, owing to the presence of the horns. The females are
as well horned as the males; in fact, the longest-horned
specimen in the series of twelve in the National Museum
is that of a female shot by Kermit Roosevelt on the
western edge of the Loita Plains. None of the females
show rudimentary horns or any evidence of transition to
the hornless condition of the races inhabiting the country
north or south of them, nor do the females of such races
show any trace of horns, not even such slight evidence as
MAP 29 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE KLIPSPRINGER
1 Oreotragus oreotragus aureus 2 Oreotragus oreotragus schillingsi
577
578 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
bony knobs on the frontal bones of the skulls. The color
differences of this race are very slight indeed, and it is dis-
tinguishable with difficulty by coloration from the race oc-
curring south of it, aceros^ in southern German East Africa,
south to the Zambesi. It is difficult to account for the pres-
ence of horns in the females of a race having no peculiar
habits, and surrounded on all sides by races in which the
females are not only hornless, but show no tendency to-
ward the acquiring of such structures.
Average male specimens measure in the flesh 33 inches
in length of head and body; tail, 3^<( inches; hind foot, 11
inches; ear, 3>^ inches. Females are fully equal in size to
the males. The longest-horned specimen is a female in
which the horns are 4^ inches in length. The longest male
horns are 3^ inches. These horn dimensions are exceeded
very little by Ward's record for East Africa of 434 inches.
The skull length of the two sexes is quite equal, the longest
female skull being 5^ inches, and the longest male 5^
inches.
The distribution of the klipspringer is quite local, owing
to their occurrence only on barren, rocky hills or mountain-
sides. The Rift Valley, with its innumerable lava cliffs and
rough broken surface, is a favorite haunt of this race.
They are distributed throughout the valley from central
German East Africa and Kilimanjaro north to Lake Ba-
ringo. Upon the slopes of the volcanic cone of Longonot,
immediately south of Lake Naivasha, they are particularly
common and occur from its base to the summit, at nine
thousand feet, where they reach their highest altitudinal
range.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES
Subfamily Antilopince
The gazelles are typical of the subfamily Antilopince,
but with them are banded several peculiar or specialized
genera. In East Africa we have two of these, the elon-
gated, spidery gerenuk and the graceful, bush-haunting
impalla. The various members agree, however, in having
a large narial chamber, short nasal bones, and narrow cheek-
teeth, and by these characters they may be distinguished
from other antelopes. They are medium-sized antelopes
with slender legs, short tails, and usually short-haired coats,
showing fulvous or tawny coloration with black facial and
flank stripes. The females are hornless in many of the
genera and the mammae formula ranges from two to four.
They are typically an open-plains or desert stock with short,
narrow ears, but many of the members have taken to a life
in bushy areas while others have invaded high mountain
plateaux. The subfamily ranges from central Asia west-
ward to southeastern Europe and southward over the whole
of Africa except the Congo forest tract. Geologically, the
group has been represented since Miocene time in Asia
and Europe and in the Mediterranean region of Africa
since the Pliocene.
579
580 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Key to the Genera
False hoofs and anteorbital pore present; horns lyrate or parallel in
direction
Head rounded, snout short; neck and legs of normal length; face
striped and flanks usually with a blackish band; female
horned in East African species; mammae, two
Gazella
Head elongate, flattened; snout produced; neck and legs greatly
lengthened; sides of face uniform in color and flanks
without dark band; female hornless; mammae, four
Lithocranius
False hoofs and anteorbital pore absent; horns showing a tendency
toward a spiral twist, broadly U-shaped and ringed;
female hornless; body size medium Mpyceros
Gazelles
Gazella
Gazella Lichtenstein, 1814, Mag. Nat. Freunde, Berl., VI, pp. 152 and 171;
type G. subguturosa, fixed in Book of Antelopes, Sclater and Thomas, 1879,
vol. Ill, p. 65.
The coloration Is usually vinaceous or cinnamon on the
dorsal surface and white on the under-parts. The face is
marked by two or three bands and the tail is of medium
length. The horns in the males are usually well developed
and are lyrate or parallel. The females are usually horned
and furnished with two mammae. The muzzle is simple, the
nasal bones being short and in contact with the maxillary
and premaxillary bones. The anteorbital fossa are moderate
or large.
The genus ranges from northern and eastern Africa
south in the Nile Valley to the Victoria Nyanza and in East
Africa to central German East Africa. Beyond Africa it
extends through western and central Asia.
This, the largest and most wide-spread genus of ante-
lopes, contains some twenty valid species. It is known as
far back in geological time as the Upper Miocene of Europe.
Several species are known from the Pliocene of Europe,
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 581
Asia, and the Mediterranean coast of Africa. Later, in the
Pleistocene age, gazelles became abundant in North Africa,
as shown by the several species which have been discovered
in deposits of this age in Algeria.
Key to Species of Gazella
Size large, horns long in the male, more than two times head; adult
male without dark flank band usually
Cinnamon coloration of back continued as a broad band on the
rump to the tail and widely separating the white
rump patch; horns short and diverging only slightly
at tips; body size smaller petersi
White rump patch undivided by cinnamon of back or at most
dorsal color only continued as a narrow stripe to the
tail; horns larger and more lyrate in shape, body size
larger grafiti
Size small, horns in the male much less than two times the length of
the head; sides with a broad dark flank band
Dark flank band bordering the white of the belly; sides with a
conspicuous groin gland clothed by pithy yellow
hair; a dark nose spot thomsoni
Dark flank band separated by buffy band from the white belly;
no lateral glands present; nose spot obsolete
rufifrons
Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti
Typical granti is found only in central German East
Africa, in Ugogo, where it was originally discovered by
Speke and Grant, in 1848, during their journey of discovery
of the source of the Nile. This point marks the southern
limit of Grant gazelles in Africa. Here it was found inhab-
iting a dry, arid, saline valley at some 3,000 feet elevation.
From this point the species ranges northward through the
Rift Valley as far as Lake Zwai, in southern Abyssinia,
where the race lacuum occurs. Westward the species
spreads to the southern shores of the Victoria Nyanza and
enters the Nile watershed. In this southwestern corner
582 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
it has evolved a form with wide-spreading horns which has
been named rohertsi. At the northwestern corner another
race appears, brighti, which is the palest and the least
banded of all. Near the coast at Kilimanjaro we find the
darkest race, serengetcB, which is somewhat intermediate
in color with the closely allied petersi. The latter species
carries the granti type still farther west and north to the
mouth of the Tana River. Peters gazelle is rnuch smaller
and darker than any of the races of granti and is not known
to intergrade. Occupying the central part of the range
and also the most elevated region we have roosevelti. Lying
between this elevated region on the southern edge of the
Abyssinian desert we meet with the shorter-horned race
known as raineyi. The horns reach their maximum spread
in the southern race robertsi, but are also wide-spread and
large in the neighboring typical granti. As we go north-
ward the horns become more parallel and shorter until the
extreme is reached in narrowness and shortness in brighti^
inhabiting the country draining into Lake Rudolf from the
west. Notata is apparently a highly colored local form
occurring only on the high plateau flanking the Lorogi
Mountains on the southwest and bears no very close rela-
tionship to the other races. The highland races known as
roosevelti and robertsi are grazers, while the desert forms,
such as brighti and raineyi, 3.Tt browsers. A structural
difference in these races has been noticed which can be
traced to differences in food habits. In the browsing races
the snout has become enlarged as indicated by the greater
length of the narial chamber. In raineyi the length of the
nares from the tip of the nasal bones to the end of the pre-
maxillaries or snout is much greater than the length of the
nasal bones. In roosevelti, which is typically a grazer, the
length of the nares is much less, equalling or only slightly
exceeding the nasals in length.
The Grant may be defined as a large-sized gazelle with
immense horns, striped face, white rump patch, and white
under-parts. The horns reach the maximum size among
gazelles, ranging in the male from 20 to 30 inches in length
along the curve. They are very heavy basally, where they
are much compressed, or flattened laterally. They ascend
vertically above the orbits and curve backward, ranging
KILIMANJARO THOMSON GAZELLE, MALE
Shot by Dr. L. W. Abbott, Taveta Kilimanjaro District United Stales National Museur
ROOSEVELT GRANT GAZELLE, MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Bondoni, Kapiti Plains, B. E. A. United States National Museum
GRANT AND THOMSON GAZELLES
'*
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 583
from broadly lyrate to parallel In shape, and are heavily
ringed for most of their length. The adult male is usually
without the dark flank band characteristic of the female,
but both sexes have a dark pygal stripe bordering the white
rump patch. The general dorsal color ranges from cinnamon
to fulvous. The young are striped like the female but
have the white of the rump much less extensive. The skull
is distinguishable from that of thomsoni by its shallower
anteorbital fossa, larger nasal-lachrymal sinus, and the
spatulate shape of the nasal process of the maxillary bone.
This, the largest of the genus, is not only the most
beautiful gazelle but one of the most beautiful of African
antelopes. It is about the size of a white-tail deer. The
long, lyre-shaped horns of the buck, the proud, graceful
carriage of the head and neck, the supple and dainty
strength of body and limbs, the delicacy of coloring, all
combine to make the animal a pleasure to look upon. The
many herds of these large gazelles which are scattered over
the Athi and Kapiti Plains form one of the chief attractions
to the traveller who rides across the long stretches of level
or rolling grass-lands. In the Sotik country the horns of
its bucks are even longer, with a more divergent bend.
On the lower levels, near the coast, they are shorter. The
does everywhere carry smaller horns than the bucks, less
beautifully shaped.
All gazelles are beasts of the open plains, avoiding
forests. They are most at home on the reaches of grass-
land where there Is not a shrub or a tree, but have no
objection to thinly scattered thorns and are often found
grazing or resting among them. They are primarily graz-
ers, but occasionally become browsers; the stomach of one
of the raineyi variety, killed on the Northern Guaso
584 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Nyiro, contained acacia pods. They are highly gregarious,
going in herds of a score or two, each composed of a master
buck accompanied by does, kids, and half-grown animals.
Young bucks are often found in small parties of half a
dozen individuals. Old bucks are sometimes solitary but
are more often found with herds of other game, such as
hartebeest or zebra; an animal of one of the gregarious
types not only appreciates company because of the advan-
tage of having other eyes and ears on the watch against
foes, but probably also from sheer love of companionship.
Both the big and the small gazelle occasionally associate
with one another; in one such case the leader of the little
band was a female Tommy whose four companions, all of
them Grant gazelles, two bucks and two does, allowed her
to take the initiative and followed wherever she led. When
grazing or going to water herds of Grant gazelle often
mingle with herds of all the other plains game, from wilde-
beests down, into one big scattered herd.
The specifically, or subspecifically, different big gazelle
found along the Northern Guaso Nyiro, scientifically known
as the raineyiy was in most of its habits identical with the
true Grant gazelle, although somewhat smaller, with shorter
and less handsome horns. There seemed to us to be one
difference, however, which, if real and not merely a mis-
taken observation on our part, was important. On the Athi
and Kapiti Plains we were struck by the incessant switch-
ing of the tails of the Tommies, whereas by comparison the
Grant gazelles kept their tails quiet, waving them at times,
but not in the incessant, nervous, electric-attachment man-
ner of the Tommies. On the Northern Guaso Nyiro there
were no Tommies, and here it certainly seemed to us that
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 585
the big gazelles were always switching their tails, almost
precisely like the Tommies and not in the manner of their
own kinsmen. This may have been an error of observation
on our part, induced by the fact that on the Northern Guaso
Nyiro there were no Tommies with which to make compari-
sons. We wish other observers would look into the matter.
The lives of these big gazelles were led under the same
conditions as those under which the other plains game
with which they associated — wildebeest, hartebeest, topi,
zebra. Tommies — led their lives, and their habits were
essentially the same. The bucks now and then fought
fiercely for the mastery of the herds. There was no fixed
mating season, as far as we could see; at any rate, we found
fawns of all ages. The mother left the herd for a few days
at the time of the fawn's birth, but soon rejoined it, the
little fawn being able to run with its elders at an early age.
The herd would feed for a few hours and then rest for a
few hours, watering once or twice a day. We could not
find that these hours were definitely fixed. Usually the
herd rested during the heat of the day, but several times
we found herds feeding at high noon, and once we found
one at a water-hole at that hour. We also, at one water-
hole, found that the gazelles as well as the hartebeests vis-
ited it at night. We saw them grazing very early in the
morning and very late in the evening. They differed
widely and inexplicably in wariness, like so many other
kinds of game. As a rule, they were not as wary as wilde-
beest and were much more wary than Tommies; but one
herd would flee when we were half a mile off and another, for
no reason that we could see, would let us ride by them within
a couple of hundred yards. In the morning we might find
586 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
the antelope of a given band or bands shy to a degree; and
in the afternoon, on our return to camp, they would let us
pass reasonably close, even to windward of them, without
showing alarm. Their eyesight was very good, and also
their sense of smell. At night they were apparently more
alert and uneasy than during the day. Perhaps this is true
of all game, although, on the other hand, it is also true that
game will allow a man to come closer in the darkness than
in daylight. They rarely went where leopards could get
at them; but lions occasionally preyed on them, although
preferring the larger hartebeests or zebras; and they were
objects of chase both for cheetahs and hunting hounds.
They never sought to hide themselves or escape observation,
although the adult males, which, unlike the females and
young males, have no black side stripe, could, perhaps, be
called concealingly colored — certainly as compared with
impalla or Tommies or hartebeests or steinboks. Their
trust was in their speed, eyesight, scent, and wariness.
Sometimes, in time of drought, most of them desert a given
district, in common with the other game, leaving only a few
individuals behind. In other regions, as on the Athi and
Kapiti Plains, they remain in practically the same country
from year's end to year's end or make a shift of a few miles
only. At any one time a herd will usually locate itself in
a given area of a few square miles and lead a fairly regular
and ordered life, so that each day at about the same time
the individuals can be found in or near the same place
doing about the same thing. While staying in a permanent
camp or on a ranch we would frequently grow acquainted
with some gazelle herd which, if unmolested, we could
almost always find within a mile or two of the spot to
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 587
which, as experience had taught us, it resorted in the morn-
ing or afternoon in the course of its daily round of exist-
ence. In some places we found stamping-grounds, or areas
of bare earth several roods in extent, to which, apparently,
herds of these gazelles must have resorted at intervals for
long periods of time, for they were thickly covered with
dung pellets in various stages of dryness.
At McMillan's ranch there was a tame doe of the big
gazelle which was as friendly and as much at home as any
domestic animal.
Key to the Races of grand
Cinnamon of back extending onto the tail as a narrow line separat-
ing the white rump patch or else stopping within
one inch of the base; tail chiefly black, only
basal one-third white
serengetce
Cinnamon of back well separated by a broad white rump patch two
or three inches wide; black of tail less exten-
sive, confined to terminal one-half
A dark flank band in adult males notata
Flanks without dark band in adult males
A dark pygal stripe bordering the white rump patch in adult
males
Horns turned outward and wide-spread, the tips hooked
backward robertsi
Horns evenly spreading and lyrate in shape, the tips ap-
proaching one another
Dorsal color lighter cinnamon, horns longer and
wider-spread granti
Dorsal color darker cinnamon, horns smaller and
narrower roosevelti
Horns more nearly parallel, not curved outward
Dorsal color lighter, dark flank band obsolete in
the adult female lacuum
588 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Dorsal color darker, dark flank band distinct in the
adult female raineyi
No dark pygal stripe bordering the white rump patch
brighti
Typical Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti grand
Gazella granti Brooke, 1872, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 601, pi. LIX (colored).
Range. — German East Africa from Ugogo, in the vicin-
ity of Kanyenye and Mpwapwa, northward at least as far
as Irangi, but not reaching British East Africa; limits of
range unknown.
The large, stately gazelle which bears Colonel J. A.
Grant's name was discovered by Speke and Grant at Kan-
yenye, Ugogo district, in i860, during their journey of
discovery of the source of the Nile. It was found inhab-
iting a dry saline plain having an elevation of three thou-
sand feet approximately. The discoverers recognized the
species as new and took precautions to make sketches of
the specimens in the field. The specimens collected were
unfortunately lost in transit, so that it became necessary
to describe the species from the notes and sketches of the
explorers. Even at the present day specimens from near
the type locality are preserved in only one or two European
museums. The typical is really the least known form of
Grant gazelle, owing to the region which it inhabits having
seldom been visited by sportsmen or naturalists. The typi-
cal race may be distinguished by the long, wide-spread
horns, the light cinnamon body, and well-marked, dark
nose spot and pygal band in the male.
Roberts Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti robertsi
Native Name: Winyamwezi, kisi.
Gazella granti robertsi Thomas, 1903, Proc. Zool. Soc, vol. II, p. 119, 2 figs,
of skull and horns.
Range. — Southeastern drainage area of the Victoria
Nyanza from Speke Gulf, in German East Africa, northward
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 589
to the Amala River and Loita Plains district of British
East Africa. Confined to the Nile drainage except at its
extreme northeast limits on the Loita Plains, where it
enters the Rift Valley system. South of this point and
lower down the Rift Valley it meets or merges into the
highland race of British East Africa, roosevelti.
The Roberts race of the Grant gazelle was described by
Oldfield Thomas from specimens collected by F. Russel
Roberts and Gilbert Blaine in the vicinity of Mwanza, a
lake port on the southern coast of the Victoria Nyanza.
Ten years previous to this discovery Oscar Neumann had
collected specimens of the same race on the Loita Plains
of British East Africa and had noted their peculiar horn
shape, but had regarded them as abnormal specimens of
the typical race. In characters this race is distinguishable
from the other races chiefly by the peculiar wide-spread
horns which turn outward and diverge widely, the extreme
tips turning backward. Normally the spread equals the
length of horn taken along the curve, but in abnormally
twisted horns the spread greatly exceeds the length. The
females do not show the peculiar horn characters, but are
distinguishable by their almost total loss of the dark flank
band which is either obsolete or only faintly indicated pos-
teriorly. Both sexes differ further from their nearest ally,
roosevelti, by their lighter dorsal coloration.
In size this race is practically equal to roosevelti. An
average specimen measures: in length of head and body
along the curve of the back, male 59 inches, female 53
inches; length of tail, male ii^^ inches, female io}4 inches;
length of hind foot from the hock to the tips of the hoof,
male 17^ inches, female, 16^ inches; length of ear from
notch, male 6^ inches, female 6% inches. The length of
the horns along the curve in the record male, a specimen
shot by R. J. Cuninghame on the Loita Plains and now in
the United States National Museum, is 28^ inches, and the
greatest spread at the tips is 39^ inches (record). The
second longest-horned male in the same institution is very
little above the average, measuring in length 25 inches and
in spread 25^^ inches. The longest-horned female has horns
15 inches in length with a spread of only Gj/i inches. The
widest-spread female horns show a width of 11^ inches and
590 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
a length of only lo inches. A large series of specimens have
been examined in the National Museum from the Loita
Plains and Amala River in British East Africa.
Roosevelt Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti roosevelti
Native Names: Masai, olzvargas; Kikuyu, ndar atari.
Gazella granti roosevelti Heller, Smith. Misc. Coll., 1913, vol. 61, No. 7, p. 4.
Range. — Typical of the elevated Athi Plains district
ranging southeast to Makindu, north as far as the southern
slopes of Kenia, and westward to the Rift Valley, where it
extends as far north as the south shore of Lake Baringo.
West of the Rift Valley of British East Africa, it is separated
from robertsi by the Mau Escarpment, and farther south
in the valley it merges, no doubt, into typical granti and
eastward into serengetce on the northwestern slopes of Kili-.
manjaro.
This race has been considered by sportsmen and nat-
uralists as typical granti owing to the lack of specimens
from the original locality in Ugogo for comparison of dif-
ferences. The type specimen was shot by Colonel Roose-
velt near Kitanga Farm, Mau Hills, Athi Plains, April 26,
1909, and described recently by Heller as a new race.
Others were shot in the same vicinity near Kapiti Station
and near Kilima Kui, while other specimens were secured in
the Rift Valley near Lakes Naivasha and Elmentaita. The
Roosevelt Grant gazelle is nearest the typical granti of
Ugogo, German East Africa, in color, but differs by its
darker coloration and by the smaller and less wide-spread
horns. From robertsi it differs by decidedly less widely
spread horns and somewhat darker color in the males and
further by the female being marked by a distinct dark flank
band. From serengetce it differs by the wider and less
divided white rump patch and considerably lighter body
coloration.
The dorsal color of the adult male is vinaceous-cinnamon
paling toward the head and on the sides to pinkish-buff.
The top of the rump and hinder border of the thighs is
marked by a wide area of pure white which is continuous
BLACK-SNOUTED THOMSON
GAZELLE, MALE
From British East Africa
, Record horns, i6 inches
EAST AFRICAN IMPALLA
MALE
British East Africa
ROOSEVELT GRANT GAZELLE
MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Boiidoni, Kapiti Plains, B. E. A.
ROOSEVELT GRANT GAZELLE, FEMALE
Photograph by J. L. Clark at Juju Farm, B. E. /\.
Presented by W. M. McMillan to National Zoological Park
EAST AFRICAN IMPALLA, ADULT MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Loita Plains
ROBLKIS GRANT GAZELLE, MALE
Shot by R. J. Cuninghame, Loita Plains, B. E. A.
Record spread and length of horns
BLACK-SNOUTED THOMSON GAZELLE
ADULT FEMALE
Loita Plains, B. E. A.
GAZELLES AND IMPALLA
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 591
with the white basal portion of the tail, the terminal half
ot which is black. The rump area is bordered in front by
a dark bistre pygal stripe one-half inch wide. The flanks
show a very slight indication of the flank band, which is
set off by a lighter band of light buff bordering the broad
band of pinkish-buff above along middle of body. The out-
side of the legs is pinkish-buff, like the sides ; and the hoofs in
front are bordered by tufts of brown hair. The under-parts
and the inside of the legs and the lower throat are silky white.
The top of the head and the median line of the snout is cinna-
mon-rufous, and the middle of the snout is marked by a large
clove-brown blotch. There is a grayish border of hair about
the horn bases, and a blackish blotch above the eyes. The
sides of the face are marked by a broad white band above the
eye extending forward to the dark snout spot, and bordered
below by an ill-defined, narrow, dusky-cinnamon streak from
the eye to the muzzle. The orbital area is white with a
bistre-brown supraocular spot extending to the horn bases.
The tip of .the snout is pale pinkish-buff. The lips and chin
are white. The forethroat is white like the chin, but the
midthroat is pinkish-cinnamon like the nape. The ears are
pinkish-cinnamon, bordered at the tip by bistre, and the in-
side and a spot below the base is white. The adult female re-
sembles the male closely in general coloration with the excep-
tion of the sides, which are marked by a broad flank band
bordered above and below by an equally wide band of pinkish-
vinaceous distinctly lighter than the cinnamon of the back.
The dark pygal band is much wider than in the male.
Newly born young are different in color from the adults, but
the color pattern is quite similar. The dorsal color is drab-
gray lined sparingly by black, and the hind legs are similar,
but the forelegs are more buffy. The head markings of the
adult are indicated, but the white areas are suffused with
buffy and do not show much contrast. The crown of the head
is buffy, not rufous, as in the adult. The dark flank band
is much less distinct than in the adult female, and is mixed
largely with buffy and does not show the light band below
separating it from the white of the belly. The white rump
patch is only indicated, being narrow and separated on
the median line by the color of the back extending onto the
tail, and is not pure white, but suffused with buffy. The
692 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
black pygal stripe is very narrow and short. The young
are distinguishable from the young of thomsoni of the same
age by their larger size and more extensive white rump
patch and white tail base.
The measurements in the flesh of average adults are:
head and body along curve of back, male 58 inches, female 53
inches; tail, male 11 inches, female io>^ inches; hind foot
from hock to tip of hoofs, male iS^4 inches, female i6>^
inches; length of ear from notch, male 6J4 inches, female
6 inches. Length of horns along curve of largest male in
the National Museum 24^^ inches, female^ i^H inches;
greatest spread on outside curve in male 16 inches, female
g)4 inches. Specimens have been examined at the National
Museum from the Athi Plains, Kitanga, Bondoni, Potha,
Rift Valley, Lake Naivasha, Lake Elmentaita, and Mount
Suswa. The vertical range of the race extends from 3,000
to 6,500 feet throughout the open grassy plains country.
Rainey Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti raineyi
Native Name: Rendile, haul.
Gazella gra^iti raineyi Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7, p. 6.
Range. — From the northern slopes of Kenia, north-
ward throughout the desert region to the eastern shore of
Lake Rudolf, eastward at least as far as the Lorian swamp.
Limits of range not known owing to lack of specimens from
the intermediate districts.
The Rainey Grant gazelle was described from spec-
imens shot by Paul J. Rainey near the junction of the
Northern Guaso Nyiro and the Isiola Rivers, some sixty
miles due north of Mount Kenia. Specimens from this
district have long been known to sportsmen under the
name of notata. The latter, although coming from the
same general district, is a peculiar local highland form of
the Lorogi Mountains, while raineyi is a close ally of brighti,
from the Turkana country west of Lake Rudolf. The
Rainey Grant gazelle resembles brighti closely, but differs
by the presence of a distinct dark pygal band or border
to the white flank patch, by darker dorsal color and larger
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 503
size and more wide-spread horns. It differs from lacuum
by darker coloration and the presence in the adult female
of a dark flank band. From roosevelti it may be distin-
guished by the decidedly smaller and more parallel horns
and by the smaller and lighter-colored dark nose spot.
The dorsal color of the adult male is light vinaceous-
cinnamon, paling toward the head and on the sides, where
it becomes pinkish-buff. The top of the rump and the
hinder border of the thighs is marked by a wide area of
pure white, which is continuous with the white basal por-
tion of the tail. The terminal half of the tail is black. The
rump area is bordered in front by a bistre pygal stripe
one-half inch wide. The flanks have a very slight indication
of the flank band in the form of a lighter band of light
buff bordering the broad band of pinkish-buff above. The
outside of the legs is pinkish-buff like the sides of the body.
The hoofs in front are bordered by brown hair. The under-
parts and the inside of the legs and the lower throat are
silky white. The top of the head and the median line of
the snout are cinnamon-rufous. The middle of the snout
is marked by a dark sepia blotch. There is a grayish patch
about the horn bases and a blackish one above the eyes.
The sides of the face are marked by a broad white band
above the eye extending forward to the dark snout si)ot, and
bordered below by an ill-defined, narrow dusky-cinnamon
streak from the eye to the muzzle. The orbital area is
white with a bistre-brown supraocular spot extending to
the horn base. The tip of the snout is i)ale pinkish-buff.
The lips and chin are white. The forethroat is white like
the chin, but the midthroat is pinkish-cinnamon like the
nape. The ears are f)inkish-cinnamon, bordered at the tip
by bistre, and the inside and the base are white. The adult
female is like the male in color, but has a well-marked dark
flank band and broader and darker pygal stripes. The
nursing young are buffy-drab in color, as described under
roosevelti.
Specimens collected by the Rainey expedition have been
examined from the desert country watered by the Northern
Guaso Nyiro from the junction of the Ngare Narok down
as far as the Lakiundu junction. North of this latter point
specimens have been examined from Karo, Longaya, and
594 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Merille in the country just south of Mount Marsabit. This
race inhabits the low thorn-scrub desert between the alti-
tudes of two thousand five hundred and one thousand feet.
The measurements of an average adult are: head and
body, along the curve of the back, male 55 inches, female
53 inches; tail vertebrae, male ii}4 inches, female 10^
inches; hind foot from hock to hoof, male i8>^ inches,
female \6}4 inches; ear from notch, male 6}i inches, fe-
male 6 inches. The longest-horned male in the National
Museum has horns 25 inches in length and a spread of loy^
inches. The widest-spread male horns in a series of fifteen
measure 12 inches. An average pair is about 22 inches
in length by 10 inches in spread. The female horns vary
greatly in a series of seven, in which the longest pair is
also the widest and measures 14^ by io3/8 inches. An
average pair is somewhat shorter and much narrower, being
12 by 6 inches.
Bright Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti brighti
Gazella granti brighti Thomas, 1900, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 805.
Range. — Northwest shore of Lake Rudolf west to the
head of the Nile watershed.
Doctor Donaldson Smith, who collected the specimens
which led to the discovery of this race, has supplied prac-
tically all of the material upon which our present knowledge
of the race is based. These include the type and a few
others from the Magois district, situated near the Nile-
Rudolf watershed, one hundred miles west of the north
end of the lake. Some months previous to Donaldson
Smith's expedition Major Bright, for whom the race has
been named, collected a female gazelle from the northwest
shore of Lake Rudolf, which was later, upon the evidence
supplied by Smith's specimens, determined as a member of
the new race by Oldfield Thomas. In this race the dorsal
coloration is very light, buffy-fulvous, the dark flank band
is wanting, and the pygal stripe quite obsolete or but
faintly indicated by a narrow line of dark hairs. The horns
are small and extend almost parallel, showing very little
spread at the tips.
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 595
Abyssinian Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti lacuum
Gazella granti lacuum Neumann, 1906, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu., No. 9,
p. 243.
Range. — The Rift Valley of southern Abyssinia In the
neighborhood of Lake Zwai, and thence southward to Lake
Abaya. Limits of range not known.
This, the most northern race, was described by its dis-
coverer, Oscar Neumann, from specimens collected at Lake
Zwai, supplemented by others from Lake Abaya. It appar-
ently occupies an isolated plateau region north of and dis-
tinct from the low desert where brighti is found. It Is
described as a small race, but with larger and wider-spread
horns than brighti, and with the dark pygal band fairly well
marked. No dimensions have been given by the describer.
Two specimens from Lake Zwai, collected by W. N. McMil-
lan, have been examined at the British Museum. Only
one of these Is without the dark side stripe, but both have
the dark pygal band broad and the horns fairly wide-spread.
LoROGi Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti notata
Gazella granti notata Thomas, 1897, Ann. l^ Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, vol.
XV, p. 479.
Range. — Southwest slope of the LorogI Mountains.
The type was collected by A. H. Neumann while ele-
phant hunting on the southwest slope of the LorogI Moun-
tains, near a small lake or swamp known as Kisima. It
was only on this high plateau, having an altitude of some
five thousand feet, that this boldly marked race was found.
The characters of the race are the presence of a dark
lateral band present In the adult male, very wide and
dark, extending from the shoulder to the rump patch,
and the dorsal coloration very dark or rufous. The LorogI
Grant gazelle is known only from the type specimen, which
is a headless skin.
596 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Serengeti Grant Gazelle
Gazella granti serengetcz
Gazella granti serengetcB Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7, p. 5.
Range. — Serengeti Plains east of Kilimanjaro. Limits
of range not known.
The type specimens were collected by Doctor W. L.
Abbott, near Taveta, in 1888, during his expedition to Kil-
imanjaro. No other specimens agreeing with these in
color have been examined from East Africa. The Serengeti
Grant gazelle is most closely allied in size to the typical
granti, from which it differs by having the white rump
patch divided by a narrow streak of the cinnamon of the
back extending to the base of the tail. In this character it
approaches petersi, which, however, has the rump broadly
divided by the color of the back and differs by the smaller
and more parallel horns.
The dorsal color in the adult male is mikado-brown
paling toward the head and on the sides, where it becomes
pinkish-buff. The top of the rump and the hinder border
of the thighs are marked by a wide area of pure white, which
is continuous with the white basal portion of the tail. The
terminal half of the tail is black. The white rump patch is
narrow, being one inch wide at the base of the tail as well as
on the hinder parts of the thighs. The cinnamon of the back
extends on the tail as a narrow dorsal stripe to the black
tip, only the basal one-third of the tail being white, leaving
the terminal two-thirds black. The white pygal band is well
marked, but the dark flank band is absent. The outside of
the legs is pinkish-buff, like the sides. The hoofs in front are
bordered by tufts of brown hair. The under-parts and the in-
side of the legs and the lower throat are silky white. The top
of the head and the median line of the snout are cinnamon-
rufous. The middle of the snout is marked by a dark sepia
blotch. There is a blackish blotch above the eyes. The sides
of the face are marked by a broad white band above the eye
extending forward to the dark snout spot, and bordered below
by an ill-defined, narrow dusky-cinnamon streak from the eye
to the muzzle. The orbital area is marked by a bistre-brown
supraocular spot extending to the horn bases. The tip of the
l7iii/£/«jt?/"(to,.
MAP 30 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF GRANT AND PETERS GAZELLES
1 Gazella granti Tobertsi 2 Gazella granti roosevelti Z Gazella granti raineyi A Gazella grayiti brighti
5 Gazella granti lacuum 6 Gazella granti notata 7 Gazella graiiti serengetce 8 Gazella petersi
597
598 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
snout Is pale pinkish-buff. The Ups and the chin are white.
The forethroat is white hke the chin and the midthroat pink-
ish-cinnamon hke the nape. The ear is pinkish-cinnamon,
bordered at the tip by bistre, and the inside and the spot at
the base are white. The female resembles the male in the
darkness of the dorsal coloration. The dark lateral band
is present as in roosevelti, but it is decidedly less distinctly
marked or obsolete anteriorly near the shoulders.
No flesh measurements of this race are available. The
horns of the two adult males are very much alike in shape
and size. They diverge gradually toward their tips, but
are not bowed out or lyrate in shape, and closely resemble
horns of the smaller species petersi. In length along the
curve they measure 2i}i and 20>< inches, and in greatest
spread 9^ and 12 inches, respectively. The horns of the
two females are quite similar in shape to the males, but much
smaller, measuring in length 14 and 12^ inches, and in
spread 6^ and 6 inches, respectively.
This race approaches the smaller gazelle of the coast
district, petersi, really closely in horn characters and some-
what in the color characters of the rump. It is, moreover,
found occupying an intermediate territory. Peters ga-
zelle is said to occur near Voi, some seventy miles east of
Taveta, in the low desert flanking the Serengeti Plains, and
it is quite probable that a series of specimens from this
intermediate territory would exhibit intermediate characters.
Peters gazelle occupies a distributional area distinct from
that of any of the races of Grant gazelle, but adjacent to
some of them, and has every appearance of being one of
these races, though the lack of specimens prevents us from
determining the exact status of this form.
Peters Gazelle
Gazella petersi
Native Name: Swahili, sala.
Gazella petersi Giinther, 1884, Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. XIV, p. 428.
Range. — From the Taru Desert northward to the
mouth of the Tana River and thence northeast along the
coast through the Jubaland Province.
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 599
Doctor G. A. Fischer, during his exploration of the
lower Tana Valley in 1878, collected the first specimens of
this gazelle at Gelidja, near the delta of the Tana. This
material was referred by Doctor Peters to Gazeila granti in
his report on the collection of mammals made by Fischer.
A figure of the skull and horns published by Peters led
Doctor Giinther, some five years later, to the conclusion
that they represented a species different from granti, owing
to the difference in horn shape and size. He described the
species as new, naming it for Doctor Wilhelm Peters, direc-
tor of the Berlin Museum.
Peters gazelle may be known by the following char-
acters: white rump patch divided widely by the extension
of the body color to the tail base, the dorsal bridge of cin-
namon being almost as wide a separation as in Gazella
thomsoni; width of white rump patch on sides of thighs
much less than in granti; dark pygal stripe wide and pro-
nounced, but dark lateral band wanting in adult males;
horns short and narrow and without the lyrate spread or
S-shaped curve backward as in granti; body size smaller.
No flesh measurements of specimens are available.
The horns seldom exceed 21 inches in length along the curve,
or more than 8 inches in spread near the tips. Specimens
are recorded from the Taru Desert, Mount Pika-Pika,
Merereni on the coast of Formosa Bay and the mouth of
the Tana River.
Thomson Gazelle
Gazella thomsoni
The small gazelle of East Africa is distinguishable from
the large Grant gazelle by many important characters other
than size. The small size and parallel direction of the
horns at once distinguish the male. The black lateral band,
which is equally well developed in both sexes, is of a different
character than the black band of the female Grant gazelle,
in which the white of the belly is separated from the black
by a narrower fulvous band. In the Thomson gazelle the
black band borders the white of the under-parts, and is as
well marked in old age as in youth. The Thomson gazelle
differs further from its larger associate by the possession
600 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of a pair of large inguinal glands on the flanks, which are
conspicuously marked by tufts of long white glandular
hair. The tail of the Thomson gazelle is also quite different
in character, being covered by long hair throughout, as in
the impalla, and not short-haired at the base with a tufted
tip, as in the Grant. The knees are furnished with brushes.
The females exhibit short, crooked, irregular horns varying
from mere stubs to six inches in length. No absolutely horn-
less female specimens are known, although statements to this
effect are occasionally recorded. It appears, however, that
the females are gradually losing their horns, which are
now subject to great irregularity and are no longer of value
as weapons. The sexes agree closely in coloration. The
male in age becomes lighter on the crown and nape, the
reddish color being replaced by whitish. The young are
dark, with little of the fulvous color of the adults, being
drab in color. They exhibit the black flank band, the dark
nose spot and eye stripe and the absence of white on the
rump, and by these characters may be recognized from
granti of the same age. The female is somewhat smaller
than the male in body size. The skull shows much varia-
tion in the size of the nasal and premaxillary bones, but
differs from granti by its much deeper or larger anteorbital
fossa. There is also marked variation in the shape of the
horns, individual specimens showing much difference in
the spread at the tips. A German naturalist, Knottnerus-
Meyer, has recently divided the Thomson gazelle into
many races, some thirteen, based on differences noted in
the .horns and skulls of a few individuals. Such differ-
ences, however, when applied to the large series of spec-
imens in the National Museum, have been found to be
individual and of no racial value. The two races here
recognized were as many as appeared worthy of distinct
names. The Thomson gazelle is essentially a highland ante-
lope and typical of the Rift Valley and the highland region
bounding it, throughout which it ranges from the Rift
Valley of central German East Africa north to Kilimanjaro
and Mount Kenia and westward to the south and east
shores of the Victoria Nyanza. The distribution of the
Masai tribe coincides quite perfectly with that of this small
gazelle.
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 601
Key to the Races of thomsoni
Snout without a darker patch near the tip; the dark stripe through
the eye dark reddish, not blackish; dark pygal stripe
narrow; horns parallel in direction with the tips close
together thomsoni
Snout marked by a large black patch near the tip; the diagonal
stripe through the eye blackish; pygal stripe wide
and distinctly blackish; horns wider-spread at the tips
nasalis
Kilimanjaro Thomson Gazelle
Gazella tho7nsoni thomsoni
Gazella thomsoni Giinther, 1884, Ann. y Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. XIV, p. 427,
fig. of horns.
Range. — From the Kilimanjaro region southward
through the Rift Valley to Irangi in German East Africa.
The Thomson gazelle bears the name of a noted explorer
of British East Africa, Joseph Thomson. Thomson ar-
rived at Mombasa in 1883 and journeyed inland by way of
Kilimanjaro and the Masai highlands as far as Lake Baringo.
During his travels he met frequently with this gazelle and
brought back with him to England several pairs of the
horns. No exact locality was attached to these spec-
imens, nor was any mention made in his account of the
journey in "Through Masailand," as to where the spec-
imens were shot or regarding the occurrence of gazelles on
his route. The horns were figured and described by Doctor
Giinther as those of a new gazelle which he dedicated to
Thomson, but no exact locality was given the specimens
collected by him. In the absence of a definite locality
the typical race has been assigned to the Kilimanjaro
region, where Thomson spent considerable time in exploring
the south, east, and north slopes of the great mountain.
Willoughby, Hunter, and Abbott, a few years later, shot
specimens on the plains flanking Kilimanjaro on the south-
east. The first complete specimens of the gazelle received
at the British Museum were sent by Jackson, and upon one
of these was based the colored figure in the "Book of
Antelopes."
602 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The typical form of the Thomson gazelle may be known
by the absence of the dark patch on the nose and by the
lighter color of the dark eye stripe of the face, which is
rufous rather than black. The dark pygal stripe on the
hind quarters is also narrower and less distinctly marked,
usually being brownish in color. The horns of the Kili-
manjaro race are more parallel in direction and less widely
spread at the tips than those of nasalis^ but they are no
shorter in length. No flesh measurements of specimens
are available. The length of fully adult horns is stated by
Willoughby to be 14 inches in length. The specimen in
the National Museum, collected by Doctor Abbott at Taveta,
has horns one inch less than this dimension. Specimens have
been recorded by Oscar Neumann as far south as Mount
Gurui in the Irangi district of German East Africa.
Black-Snouted Thomson Gazelle
Gazella thomsoni nasalis
Native Names: Masai, ol-oilin; Kikuyu, enclaratali.
Gazella thomsoni nasalis Lonnberg, 1908, Mams. Sjostedt Exp. Kilimanjaro,
p. 46.
Range. — From the southern and eastern shores of the
Victoria Nyanza, in German East Africa, northward to Brit-
ish East Africa as far as the southwestern slope of the Lorogi
Mountains and eastward to the eastern edge of the high-
land region as far as Makindu Station and Mount Kenia.
The Thomson gazelle inhabiting the highlands of Brit-
ish East Africa was named nasalis by Lonnberg, owing to
the presence of a black nose spot by which the race may
be distinguished from the typical form. Upon comparing
specimens from Kilimanjaro with the colored figure of
Thomson gazelle in the "Book of Antelopes," the differ-
ence in snout coloration was discovered and led to the
naming of the highland race as new. The describer, how-
ever, assigned his race to northern Uganda and the Lado
Enclave, under the assumption that such localities repre-
sented the extreme northern range of the gazelle. The
northern limits, however, fall many miles short of these
territories, but as the name is based on a colored illustra-
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 603
tion which is founded on a mounted specimen secured by
Jackson in British East Africa, it is available for the gazelle
inhabiting the interior highlands.
The Thomson gazelle, everywhere known as the Tommy,
is an abundant animal on the plains of much of British
East Africa. Its range roughly corresponds with the
range of the common kongoni hartebeest and the wilde-
beest; why it should not, like the zebra, extend this range
to take in other stretches of country of seemingly the same
character is hard to understand. It is another case like
that of the hartebeests, like that of the topi and the wilde-
beests, where the sharply drawn line of distribution seems
entirely artificial, there being no difi^erence of flora or of
climate to account for the abundance of the species in one
place and its absence from another place substantially the
same in character.
The Tommy is the smallest of the true plains game. It
is purely a beast of the open grass-land, and in its habits
it does not differ materially from the bigger plains game
with which it associates. It is generally found where
there are no trees at all, but it does not object to the pres-
ence of the thinly scattered acacias which in Africa one
grows accustomed to associate with the sight of teeming
wild life. It is one of the numerous antelope which
never hide and never seek to escape observation. Its
coloring is conspicuous because of the vivid black lateral
stripe, and as its tail is twitching violently all the time, and,
as it never seeks cover, it never, when adult, eludes the
sight of any foe if the conditions are such that any animal
can be seen at all. The fawns, as is the case with the
young of all antelopes, and even of wild oxen, and probably
604 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
of wild horses, do crouch flat and endeavor to escape the
eyes of their foes; but the aduhs trust only to their keen
senses and their speed for safety. Tommies frequently
lie down, but they never seek to escape observation when
lying down, and, on the contrary, usually seem more anxious
and alert at such times than when standing. They seem
to know that they are at a disadvantage when not standing.
Their speed is great. Mr. Rainey's greyhounds were unable
to catch them. When pursued by an ordinary dog they
merely play along in front of him, bounding and cutting
pranks, and treating the whole affair as a frolic. The
cheetah, however, can run them down, as it can every other
animal on the face of the earth. The fawns are preyed on
by jackals, other small beasts of prey, and eagles, the
adults by hunting hounds and cheetahs; but they do not
wander into the domain of the leopard and are too small
to be eagerly pursued by the lion, the arch enemy of all
the bigger ruminants.
Tommies are gregarious and polygamous. They are
found in small parties and also at times in bands of forty
or fifty individuals; and occasionally they are found singly
or in couples, an old buck by himself or a doe with a couple
of fawns or a couple of young bucks. The does are pro-
lific; we found fawns of every age, and sometimes one,
sometimes two, with the mother. Tommies are grazers.
They feed and rest alternately for a few hours at a time.
They may be seen resting, feeding, or drinking at every hour
of the day. They are easily tamed and make pretty and
amusing pets. We often ran across them in the houses
of the Boer settlers on terms of the utmost familiarity with
the children. Normally, they are the least wild of the
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 605
game. They do almost no damage to the settler, and they
are so easily protected that there can be no excuse for their
extermination or serious diminution. Any man or any
woman interested in natural history could easily make an
invaluable life study of these pretty and interesting little
gazelles, because their tameness, their accessibility, and
the nature of their haunts render it possible to study all
their actions continuously and minutely from day to day
throughout the seasons. Such a study, if serious and pro-
longed, and by a competent and interested observer, would
throw much light on many problems of animal psychology.
Most, although not all, of the plains game lead substan-
tially the same lives, and as a rule they are very simple
lives; but there are queer breaks in and exceptions to these
lives, and on some points the species differed widely from
one another, while in others the differences are individual
rather than specific; and we need to know both the general
rules of their conduct and, so far as possible, the explanations
for the seeming exceptions.
The black-snouted Thomson gazelle is well character-
ized by its name. Besides this distinguishing character,
it may be recognized by its darker colored or blackish
facial stripes and by the more pronounced black pygal
stripe. The horns are usually distinguishable by their
wider spread and by their slightly greater length. The
differences in these dimensions average two inches more in
spread at the tips and one inch more in length compared to
the typical race.
The coloration on the dorsal surface is a uniform cinna-
mon from the base of the tail to the nape. The lower sides
are marked by a broad black flank band extending from
the shoulder to the hind quarters, bordered below by the
white under-parts and above by a wide stripe of vina-
ceous-buff distinctly lighter than the cinnamon dorsal
606 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
color. The hind quarters posteriorly are white, the white
area bordered by a prominent black pygal stripe in front
extending from the rump toward the hock. The tail is
black and clothed uniformly with long hair. The legs on
the outer surface are vinaceous-buff, and white on the inside
where they are connected with the white under-parts. The
dorsal surface of the snout is rufous, except the tip, which
is marked by a large black patch. The sides of the face are
marked by a broad white stripe from the horn base and
eye region to the muzzle, which is bordered above by the
dark dorsal surface of the snout and below by a black band
from the anteorbital pore to the muzzle. The upper lips,
chin, and throat are white. The crown, back of the ears,
and the sides of the head are vinaceous-buff. The inside
and the tips of the ears are white. The female shows
only slight differences in color from the male, which are
confined solely to the head, the crown being rufous or
brownish and the nape cinnamon in conformity with the
back. The young do not show the fulvous coloring of
their parents, but are quite dark in color. They are drab,
lined lightly by black, and have the dark side stripe much
less conspicuous than the adults. They show the dark
snout patch and have the whole crown and ears brownish
or dusky as well as having the pygal band and white area
to the hind quarters indicated.
The average measurements of adult male specimens in
the flesh are: 47 inches in length of head and body; tail,
9>^ inches; hind foot, I3>^ inches; ear, 4^ inches. The fe-
male is somewhat less in size, being usually i inch less in
length of hind foot. The average horn length in this race
is 13 inches, but specimens 15 inches in length are by no
means rare. The record length given by Ward is i6}4
inches. The horns are really very uniform in length. The
extremes in a series of sixty heads from British East Africa
in the National Museum are: longest, 15^ inches; shortest,
11^ inches. The width, however, varies greatly, the
extremes in the same series being from 3 to %% inches.
The horns of the females vary greatly in size and direction.
Usually they are quite deformed and contorted and are
seldom symmetrical. The extremes in length of a series of
sixteen are: length, 2>^ to 5J/2 inches; spread, }i to 3>^
MAP 31 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE THOMSON GAZELLE
1 Cazella thomsoni thomsoni 2 Gazella thomsoni nasalis
607
608 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
inches. A large series of specimens of this race have been
examined in the National Museum, from the Kapiti and
Athi Plains, the Rift Valley in the vicinity of Lake Naivasha,
the Laikipia Plains north of Mount Kenia, and the Loita
Plains and Southern Guaso Nyiro River district.
Uganda Red Fronted Gazelle
Gazella rufijrons albonota
Native Name: Dinka, el hamra.
Gazella rufijrons albonota Rothschild, 1903, Nov. Zool., vol. V, p. 480.
Range. — From the northern frontier of Uganda, in the
vicinity of Gondokoro, northward through the eastern drain-
age area of the Nile as far as the Sobat River, and eastward
to the crest of the Nile watershed.
The Uganda race of the red-fronted gazelle was de-
scribed by Walter Rothschild in 1903 from specimens col-
lected near the Soudan station of Mongolia. In characters
it differs from the northern Soudan race, salmi, by more
contrasted head markings, the nose and lower half of the
central face stripe being black mixed with rufous instead of
buff, and the horns are wider-spread and more recurved
backward with the points turned inward more. The general
coloration resembles that of Gazella thomso7ii, but it differs
by having the dark flank band bordered below by a buffy
band which separates it from the white of the under-parts.
The body size and length of horns are similar to G. thomsoni.
Horns of males average 12 inches in length along the curve
with a spread at the tips of 6 inches.
The recorded specimens practically all come from the
vicinity of Mongolia. Thomas, however, records a spec-
imen of G. thomsoni collected by Donaldson Smith at a
point ninety miles east of Mongolia, at the crest of the
Nile-Lake Rudolf watershed, which may well be the Roths-
child race of rufifrons. The Thomson gazelle is not known
to occur in the Rudolf basin at all, its northern limits
not extending beyond Lake Baringo and the Lorogi Moun-
tains. The specimen recorded by Thomas is, moreover, well
within the range of Gazella rufifrons albonota.
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 609
The Gerenuk
Lithocranius
Lithocranius Kohl, 1886, Ann. Mus. Wien, I, p. 79; type L. walleri.
The gerenuk is a striking peculiarity among East African
antelopes in almost all its characteristics whether of body-
form or of habit. In Somaliland it is associated with an
understudy, the dibatag, but in British East Africa, into
which country it has but recently wandered, it stands
alone. The grotesque figure of the gerenuk needs no de-
scription. It can be recognized as far as it is visible by its
extreme slenderness, gauntness, and spidery aspect. The
body is very narrow and mounted on extremely long, slen-
der legs. The great length and slenderness of the neck,
however, is one of its chief peculiarities. This structure
is almost equal to the body in length and merges quite
imperceptibly into the narrow head. The snout is long
and produced at the tip into a short, prehensile lip or pro-
boscis. The ears are large and somewhat more expanded
than in the typical gazelles. The tail is thin-haired and of
medium length. The knees are furnished with well-marked
brushes. The male is armed with horns of a peculiar ly-
rate shape which are hooked forward sharply at the tips
and ringed throughout most of their length, but the female
is hornless. Four mammae are present in the female. The
dorsal color is a uniform cinnamon-red without the dark
side stripe or head stripes of gazelles. The skull is peculiar
among gazelles in its great flatness and length, the posterior
part being produced backward into a knobbed crest on the
occiput. The bones of the snout or premaxillaries are very
slender and bent downward at their tips, as in the dikdik,
and are of the characteristic shape found among species
possessing a proboscis. The males are distinctly larger than
the females, but are not distinguishable in coloration except
by the absence of a dark crown patch. The young resemble
the adult female in coloration. A single species is known
which ranges from Somaliland and southern Abyssinia south
to Kilimanjaro and German East Africa. The peculiar
structure of the animal and its adaptability to a desert
610 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
habitat would suggest its origin in the Somaliland region
and its extension later southward into British and German
East Africa.
Gerenuk
Lithocranius walleri
Native Names: Somali, gerenuk; Rendile, tange.
Gazella walleri Brooke, 1878, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 929, pi, LVI.
Range. — From Somaliland and southern Abyssinia south-
ward throughout the coast and Lake Rudolf drainage area
to the Kilimanjaro district and the Rift Valley of German
East Africa as far south as the mouth of the Pangani River.
The gerenuk was first described by Sir Victor Brooke
from specimens received from Waller, supposedly from the
Kilimanjaro region. Sclater and Thomas, however, in the
" Book of Antelopes," refer the origin of these specimens to
the coast district near the mouth of the Juba River, on infor-
mation received from Sir John Kirk, from whom Waller is
alleged to have obtained the specimens sent to Brooke.
The species is of rare or local occurrence in the Kilimanjaro
region and has been obtained by very few sportsmen in
that district. North of the Tana River, however, and
throughout Somaliland it is universally distributed and is
well known to every traveller who has visited these regions.
It is doubtless from this latter region that the specimens
described by Brooke were obtained. Herr Oscar Neumann,
in 1899, described the gerenuk of Somaliland as a new race,
giving as characters larger body size, paler color, lighter-
colored knee-brushes, and less extent to the white area on
the back of the hind quarters. Specimens from the North-
ern Guaso Nyiro district in the National Museum are fully
as large as the dimensions of Somaliland specimens and
resemble them closely in color and extent of the white on
the hind quarters. The color of the knee-brushes in these
specimens varies from light brown to seal-brown or black.
We doubt very much If the Somali gerenuk can be distin-
guished from specimens from British East Africa.
This queer, long-legged, long-necked antelope, called by
the Swahilis ** little camel," was common in the dry, thorn-
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 611
scrub-covered country along the Northern Guaso Nyiro. It
was as wild and wary as the gazelle of the neighborhood was
tame. It was always found singly or in small parties, some-
times near the river, more often in the driest regions; and
the gerenuk, which lived away from the neighborhood of
water, certainly did not drink at all. They browsed on the
twigs and withered leaves of the bushes and low thorn-trees.
The stomach contents of two or three specimens included
leaves of the tooth-brush bush, Salvadora persica ; wait-a-bit
acacia leaves, A. mellifera ; and berries of nightshade. Sola-
num campy lac anthum. All their attitudes are characteristic
and unlike those of other antelopes. They frequently rise
on their hind legs to snatch some bunch of leaves which is
beyond the reach of their long necks, and when alarmed
they sneak off at a trot through the bushes with the head
and neck stretched straight in front of them. They were
quite indifferent to heat, and we saw them feeding at noon
as often as in the morning or evening. They were some-
times found in the barren, open plains, crossing from one
patch of scrub to another, and if surprised in such a place
they would break into a gallop. More often they were
found in the rather thinly bushed tracts — the bushes at
the time of our visit being well-nigh leafless — and then they
preferred to skulk and hide.
The dorsal color of the body is uniform cinnamon-
rufous and covers the back like a short blanket, being
sharply defined along the middle of the sides by a band of
lighter color, or buff-pink. The buff-pink extends over the
middle and lower sides, and is defined in its turn sharply
against the white under-parts. Upon the sides of the neck,
however, there is no sharp contrast between the color of
the nape and that of the throat. The limbs are uniform
612 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
buff-pink like the sides of the body with the exception of
the knee-brushes on the forelegs, which are usually blackish
centrally and very conspicuous. The color of the body is
continued on to the tail as a narrow crest of cinnamon hair
to the black tufted tip. The under-surface of the tail is
quite hairless. The crown is bright rufous from the horn
bases to the tip of the snout, the red color merging
gradually on the sides to the buff-pink. Above the eye
is a conspicuous white stripe from the horn base to
well in front of the eye. The region below the eye is also
whitish, as well as the lips, chin, and a- median stripe extend-
ing down the centre of the throat a short distance. The
back of the ears is like the sides, buff-pink, and the inside
is marked by a few diagonal rows of long white hairs. The
female differs in coloration from the male by having a dark-
brown or blackish patch on the crown and by dark tips
and backs to the ears. The young have the dark crown
patch of the female and are quite like their female parent in
coloration.
The dimensions of an adult male in the flesh were: head
and body, 50 inches; tail, 11 inches; hind foot, 17 inches;
car, 5^ inches. The largest male skull in a series of eight
is 9^ inches in greatest length. An adult female skull
measures S}i inches. Horns measuring 14 inches in length
are not rare in British East Africa. The record is not
greatly in excess of this average, being only 16 inches.
The Somaliland record only exceeds this by one inch. A
series of nineteen specimens from the Northern Guaso
Nyiro are in the National Museum, collected by the Roose-
velt and Rainey expeditions. These represent localities
along the middle course of the river and northward in the
desert near Mount Marsabit. Donaldson Smith has shot
specimens much farther north at the north end of Lake
Rudolf and others east of the lake on the headwaters of
the Juba River. The southern limits of the range are
marked by specimens shot in German East Africa by Schil-
lings on the Pangani River south of Kilimanjaro. Hunter
met with the gerenuk near Lake Jipe, southeast of Kil-
imanjaro and also on the Tana River. Jackson records
it as abundant on the coast at Merereni, north of the Sabaki
River.
MAP 32 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE GERENUK
1 Lithocranius walleri
613
614 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The Impalla
jEpyceros
JEpyceros Sundevall, 1847, K. Vet. Akad. Handl., 1845, p. 271; type
A. melampus.
The impalla is one of the aberrant members of the sub-
family Antilopince, of which the gazelles are typical. It
resembles the gazelles more closely in skull structure than
any other group, and in conformity with them the snout
shows a large narial chamber and broad, short nasal bones,
but differs by having a large oval sinus on the sides of the
snout between the premaxillary and maxillary bones. In
the absence of anteorbital fossae it differs decidedly from
African gazelles, but in this respect resembles such Asiatic
members as the chiru, Pantholops, of Tibet and the Mon-
golian gazelles of the genus Procapra. The absence of
false hoofs distinguishes the impalla from all other large
antelopes. Other characters which serve to separate it
from the African gazelles are the absence of the anteorbital
gland and pore on the face, the absence of horns in the
female, the lack of stripes on the face or body, the bushy
tail and the presence of four mammae in the female. The
only gazelle marking in the coat is the black pygal stripe
on the hind quarters. A color character, confined to this
antelope alone, concerns the feet. The hind legs are marked
on the cannon-bones by two oval black patches in which the
hair is much longer and coarser and overlies a glandular
area of the skin similar to the metatarsal glands of the
white tail deer. The position of the fetlocks is marked by
two smaller black patches. The sexes are alike in color,
but the female is somewhat smaller than the buck in size.
The newly born young differ in no way conspicuously from
the coloration of their parents.
The genus contains a single species which is confined to
the Ethiopian region, where it ranges from the Orange
River, in South Africa, northward on the East Coast as far
as British East Africa and southern Uganda. In the south-
ern part of its range it spreads westward to Angola, but is
not found north of that district in the Congo forest area or
the Nigerian region.
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 615
Equatorial Impalla
Mpyceros melampus suara
Native Names: K.inyzmwesi, suara ; Swah'iW, szvala ; KWiamhz, ndadai.
Strepsiceros suara Matschie, 1892, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu., Berl., p. 135.
Range. — Occurring throughout German East Africa
and extending north in British East Africa as far as the
Tana River drainage and the northern slopes of Mount
Kenia, thence westward to the Turkwell River. In Uganda
it extends as far north as Ankole.
The present name of suara, by which the equatorial
impalla is now known in zoology, was applied by Matschie
originally to an association of material consisting of the skull
and horns of a lesser koodoo, the skin of a female impalla,
and the painting of an impalla by Doctor Richard Bohm.
Some years afterward, upon discovering his mistake, Matschie
applied the name suara to the impalla in his monograph
on the mammals of German East Africa, published in 1894,
thus eliminating the koodoo element of the original descrip-
tion. The impalla was first recorded in 1863 from East Africa
by Speke and Grant, who met with it in German East Africa.
Since their time it has been reported by practically every
traveller in the region. Von Heuglin reported the impalla
from the White Nile, but it is now known not to occur in
the Nile Valley proper. This error may have been due
to a confusion of the impalla with the kob, which it resem-
bles closely in color and size, and from which it is not dis-
tinguishable in life except on close inspection.
The equatorial impalla is distinguishable with some
difficulty from the typical form of South Africa. It differs
chiefly by its lighter or brighter tawny coloration and by
larger horns. From the Angola race, petersi, it is distin-
guishable by the absence of a black face blaze and ocular
stripes. Indications of these dark markings, however, are
often found on specimens from British East Africa, where
only the old males are without some faint trace of them.
The dorsal coloration is bright cinnamon-rufous, and
extends well down on the sides, where it is sharply defined
against the ochraceous-buff of the sides, which covers a strip
about three inches wide extending the whole length of the
616 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
flanks and is well defined against the white of the under-
parts and the inside of the hind legs. The hind quarters
and rump are ochraceous-buff and marked by a black pygal
stripe extending from the base of the tail one-third of the
way to the hocks. The rump and the tail are marked by a
black dorsal stripe which extends almost to the tufted tip
of the latter, which is buff at the base and white terminally.
The legs are ochraceous-buff like the lower sides. The hind
legs are marked by two black oval patches on the cannon-
bones, the black being continued down to another pair on the
fetlocks. The pastern region above the hoof is whitish. The
back of the hock is marked by a black spot. The fore limbs
are like the hind in color, but lack the black patches, except
the pair at the fetlocks. The head shows some decided
contrast in color. The ears are conspicuous by their broad
black tips and white inner side, and the eye region is re-
lieved by a broad white stripe extending forward from the
eye a short distance. The lips, chin, and throat are also
white, the two latter areas being separated by a bar of
ochraceous on the upper throat. The rest of the head is
uniform cinnamon-rufous, with the exception of the crown,
which is black between the horns in the male, while in the
female the whole crown region is black. A majority of
specimens show slight indication of a black face blaze and
black diagonal stripe through the eye. These black mark-
ings are most distinct on females and young. The latter
often show in addition black leg stripes.
An adult male shot by Colonel Roosevelt on the Loita
Plains measured in the flesh: 59 inches in length of head
and body along the curve of the back; tail, 14 inches; hind
foot, 173^ inches; ear, 6>2 inches. This specimen represents
the average size attained by the males. The females are
somewhat smaller, judging from the flesh dimensions of a
fully adult female from the same district, which measured:
length of head and body, 54 inches; tail, 12 inches; hind
foot, i6>2 inches; ear, 6 inches. The skull of this spec-
imen measured 934" inches in length. Male skulls are con-
siderably larger than this one and average io>^ inches
in length. The longest-horned specimen in the series of
twenty-seven males in the National Museum is a specimen
measuring 29 inches in length on the curve. This specimen
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 617
was shot near the headwaters of the Amala River, close to
the German border, by Heller. The average horn length
in this large series is 24 inches. The record horn length for
British East Africa, given by Ward, is 31^^ inches, while
that for the typical race of South Africa is 27^ inches.
The difference in these lengths represents fairly well the
amount of difference in size of the two races. Specimens
measuring 27>^ inches are not at all rare in British East
Africa.
In Millais's delightful ''Breath from the Veldt," a book
which illustrates well why photographs can never approach
in value true pictures of wild life by a competent nature
artist, a special study is made of the springbuck. This
South African gazelle is shown in all its extraordinary leap-
ing postures. There are also pictures of the impalla, but
not in its characteristic attitudes. It is a pity that Millais
did not do for the impalla what he did so well for the spring-
buck and for that most eccentric of four-footed beasts, the
white-tailed gnu. Among all the horned animals of middle
Africa the impalla is the one which when alarmed takes the
most extraordinary leaps and bounds. When a herd is
frightened in fairly thick but low bush, the animals go -off
almost like birds, springing in every direction, clear over
the bushes, or many feet into the air even when there are
no bushes. Their carriage is beautiful, their movements
are the perfection of grace and agility. Their annulated
horns describe each a spiral, and their beautifully colored
coats, contrasted red and white, have a satin sheen. Their
coloring makes them very conspicuous, as it contrasts
sharply with all their usual surroundings. The buck, when
amorous, displays the coloration by strutting among the
does with tail erect and the hair of the rump and sides
618 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
raised; the head usually up and back, but sometimes
stretched in front ; and often he grunts.
Impalla are gregarious. Each master buck — or ram, as
the males of all the lesser antelope are called in Africa —
has a harem of twenty or thirty or forty does. Young
bucks and very old bucks may be found solitary or in
parties of half a dozen; a doe with a new-born fawn keeps
by itself. Once we crept up to within ten yards of a doe
and fawn lying down among the bushes. The big bucks
fight fiercely for the mastery of the does. Kermit killed
one with the broken horn of a rival imbedded in its neck.
Evidently the two supple, vigorous beasts had bounded
together with such force that the horn was broken off short ;
the piece was about ten inches long, of which the tip to
the extent of three inches or so was imbedded in the muscle
so firmly that it was pulled out only with effort. The
wounded animal seemed in perfect health.
Impalla live in cover, sometimes thick, sometimes thin,
and never go more than a few miles from water. On the
Athi we found them grazing on the open plains, a mile or
two away from water, with gazelles and hartebeests, early
in the morning and late in the afternoon; if disturbed, the
gazelles and the hartebeests ran in the open, whereas the
impalla at once left them and headed for the cover which
bordered the river, a thick growth of trees and bushes. In
this cover they passed several hours during the heat of the
day, usually lying down, sometimes feeding. On the North-
ern Guaso Nyiro and the Sotik I never happened to see them
more than a couple of hundred yards from cover. They
are chiefly grazers. They feed and rest alternately, day and
night, for a few hours at a stretch. Of course, where much
MAP 33 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF THE IMPALLA
1 ^pyceros melampus suara
619
620 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
pursued by man they lie hid in cover during the daytime.
We found one herd coming to water early in the afternoon
and another about sunset. They advanced in the fashion
of most game, keeping in the open with no attempt to hide,
continually halting and bounding away on false alarms.
One herd took half an hour in traversing the last three
hundred yards to the drinking-place; then they drank at a
shallow place, evidently fearing crocodiles nearly as much
as leopards. Impalla, like waterbuck, reedbuck, and bush-
buck, drink frequently — two or three times a day — being
wholly unable to stand thirst like the species of the plains
and the desert.
Some of them on the Athi were infected with ticks,
which clustered at the bases of the horns. The leopard
was their chief enemy. They were very shy on the plains,
less so in the woods. We did not find them tenacious of
life, as most African game is said to be; twice individuals
succumbed to wounds which would hardly have prevented
a blacktail or a whitetail deer from making off.
Impalla are abundant about the slopes of Kilimanjaro,
and are occasionally found in the adjacent desert tracts
of Taita and the Taru, but are absent from the moist
coast belt. Westward they are not uncommon along the
German border as far west as the Victoria Nyanza, but
their real centre of abundance is the Rift Valley. Both
Count Teleki and Jackson have found them as far north as
the Turkwell River, in which region they reach their extreme
northern limit. The Ankole district in southern Uganda
represents the northwestern limit of the range of the
impalla, which is not known to occur farther north in the
Nile Valley proper. Bohm, who furnished Matschie with
the material for the description of the equatorial race of
the impalla, obtained his specimen near Tabora, directly
south of the Victoria Nyanza and east of the northern shores
THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 621
of Lake Tanganyika. Specimens from the Northern Guaso
Nyiro region have recently been described by a Swedish
naturaUst, Inar Lonnberg, as a new race, based upon their
apparently lighter color and longer nasal bones. The impalla
from this region in the National Museum, however, show
no differences in color or other characters by which they
may be distinguished from specimens from the highland
region.
CHAPTER XIX
THE DIKDIKS
Subfamily Rhynchotragince
The dikdiks are antelopes of very small size, having the
snout produced into a short proboscis and the anteorbital
gland of large size and opening by a circular orifice on the
face. The tail is rudimentary, and less than two inches
long. The male alone is horned. The horns are short,
ringed, and project backward in a line with the profile of
the snout. The female has four mammae. The hoofs are
slender and the false hoofs are minute. The coloration of
the sexes is alike, but the tuft of long hair on the forehead
is decidedly coarser and denser in the male. The color pat-
tern of the young at birth is identical to that of the adults.
The female is distinctly larger than the male. The skull
has the anterior narial opening greatly enlarged to accom-
modate the proboscis, which is brought about partially by
the nasal bones being much reduced, their length being not
greater than their width. The premaxillae are very slender
in the typical genus, and reduced so that they do not extend
more than half-way to the nasal bones. The anteorbital
fossae are much enlarged to accommodate the large ante-
orbital glands. Young skulls in which the first molars are
just erupting show well-developed upper canine teeth, but
these are absorbed again by the time the second molars are
erupted. Similar canine teeth are found in Gazella at the
622
THE DIKDIKS 623
same age, but have not been observed in other genera of
antelopes.
The short nasal bones, the large anteorbital fossae and
the great size of the narial opening of the dikdiks ally them
closely to the gazelles and separate them fairly widely from
the other groups of small antelopes with which they are usu-
ally grouped. In the structure of the snout they resemble
closely the proboscis-bearing Saiga, which shows an even
greater reduction of the nasal and the premaxillary bones.
The skulls of newly born gazelles are scarcely distinguish-
able in shape of nasal bones or relative size of the narial
opening from those of adult dikdik. There are two genera:
RhynckotraguSy bearing a large proboscis, and Madoqua,
having the proboscis smaller and the premaxillary bones
normal. The latter genus is confined to Somaliland and
Abyssinia, and is not known to occur in British East Africa.
Long-Snouted Dikdiks
Rhynchotragus
Rhynchotragus Neumann, 1905, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. Nat. Freu., Berl., p. 88; type
Madoqua guentheri Thomas.
In the long-snouted dikdiks the coloration is much more
subdued than in Madoqua, the colors never being bright
orange. The body size is also larger and the proboscis is much
more developed, being fully twice as great in length. The
skull has the nasal bones more reduced and the premaxillary
bones widely separated from the nasals. The last lower
molar tooth has three folds to the crown instead of two as
in Madoqua. The genus ranges from central Somaliland
and Abyssinia southward through the coast and Rift Valley
drainage area to central German East Africa. It is not
known to occur west of the Rift Valley in the Nile drainage.
An isolated species, damarensis, occurs in German Southwest
Africa and Angola. No fossil species are known.
624 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
We came across two species and several races of dik-
diks. In these tiny animals the sexes are of almost equal
size, the female being, if anything, slightly larger. The
little creatures live in thick cover, and run under the
branches like a civet or a mongoose. The voice is a bird-
like whistle or chirp. They are always found singly or in
pairs, or in pairs with one young one, and are shy, timid,
and alert. They browse, graze, and eat roots; one was
seen digging grass tubers at lo a.m. in the bright sunlight
in the desert region of the Northern Guaso Nyiro. They go
entirely without water; at least we found them in thickets
which apparently they never left and which were miles
from any water. In the desert they never came to water;
it is possible that some of those in the highlands drink at
pools. We thought we found signs that this was so.
The tiny dikdik has one habit which it shares with the
huge rhinoceros. It tends to deposit its dung in one place;
at any rate, we found dung heaps which had evidently been
resorted to for many weeks by one or two of the little crea-
tures. On account of its habits and of the dense bush in
which it dwells, it is rarely seen. The stomach of a spec-
imen killed at the Northern Guaso Nyiro contained the
leaves of two bushes, Strychnos and Sahadora, the latter
the tooth-brush bush of the Somalis. Another specimen col-
lected at Naivasha contained the leaves and parts of the hard
yellow berries of a nightshade, Solanum campylacanthum.
Key to the Species of Rhynchotragus
Proboscis large and expanded; premaxillae short, only reaching half-
way to nasals; nasals very short, only reaching as
far as front of last upper premolar; belly white
without fulvous margin on sides guentheri
MAP 34 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE EAST AFRICAN RACE OF LONG-
SNOUTED DIKDIK
1 Rhynchotragus guentheri smithi
625
626 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Proboscis smaller and narrow; premaxillae long, reaching nasals; nasal
bones longer, reaching as far forward as front of
tooth row; white of belly bordered by fulvous
kirki
Large-Snouted Dikdik
Rhynchotragus guentheri smithi
Native Name: Rendile, sagari.
Madoqua guentheri smithi Thomas, 1900, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 804.
Range. — From the Rift Valley of southern Abyssinia
south through the Lake Rudolf region to Lake Baringo
and the Northern Guaso Nyiro River of British East Africa;
west as far as the Nile watershed and east at least as far as
the Lorian swamp.
The type specimen of this race was collected by Doctor
Donaldson Smith thirty miles southeast of Lake Stefanie,
on the Abyssinian border, during his journey in 1898-9
from Lake Rudolf to the Nile. Lonnberg, in 1907, de-
scribed another race from Lake Baringo which he called
nasoguttata owing to the proboscis showing white flecks.
A series of specimens from Lake Baringo have been
examined in the British Museum and found to be indis-
tinguishable from smithi in size or coloration.
This race is at once distinguishable from all other Brit-
ish East African dikdiks by the enormous development
of the proboscis, which is fully twice the size of that of
other races, and by the absence of a fulvous lateral band
to the under-parts, which are wholly white. The skull
differs decidedly by its small nasal bones, which are much
broader than long, and by the shortness of the premaxil-
lary bones, which reach only half-way to the nasals. The
narial chamber is of enormous extent, greatly exceeding
in length the interorbital breadth of the skull.
The dorsal coloration is buffy-gray vermiculated with
blackish, giving a pepper-and-salt effect. The tail is haired
above and is like the back in color, but below it is naked.
The legs to the knees and hocks are similar to the back in
color, but the lower part of the limbs are ochraceous-buff.
The under-parts are pure white without any indication of
a fulvous band along the sides. The lower and middle
THE DIKDIKS 627
throat are vermiculated with blackish hke the nape; but
the forethroat and chin are white. The head has the long
tuft on the crown vermiculated like the back, but the buffy
annulations are distinctly lighter. The snout and proboscis
are bright tawny dorsally, but the sides of the face and the
back of the ears are lighter or ochraceous-bufif. The lips
and the inside of the ears are white. The anteorbital pore
and eyelids are black.
The average measurements of adults in the flesh are:
length of head and body, male, 23^ inches, female, 25 inches ;
tail, I y^ inches ; length of hind foot, male, 7^ inches, female,
8 inches; ear, 3^^ inches. Greatest length of skull: male,
4iV inches, female, 4^ inches; length of narial chamber,
male, i^ inches, female, i^ inches. The longest-horned
male in a series of ten adults has horns 3iV inches long
in a straight line and i^ inches spread at the tips. Average
horns are a half inch less than these dimensions.
A large series of specimens collected by the Rainey
expedition have been examined from the Northern Guaso
Nyiro near its junction with the Lakiundu and from the
region just north of this point on the Marsabit Road at
Merille and Longaya. Specimens have also been examined
from the juniper forest on the summit of Mount Lololokwi
at an elevation of six thousand feet. Other specimens from
the upper Turkwell River north of Mount Elgon, from
Lake Baringo, and from the type locality near Lake Ste-
fanie have been examined. The range of this species over-
laps that of the kirki group in the region watered by the
Northern Guaso Nyiro, where it is found associated every-
where with a much smaller race, kirki minor.
Kirk Dikdik
Rhynchotragus kirki
Range. — From the Northern Guaso Nyiro River and
Lake Baringo southward through the Rift Valley and coast
drainage area to central German East Africa.
The Kirk dikdik differs from the guentheri group of
the northern desert area by its much smaller proboscis and
the broad fulvous border to the under-parts. The skull
628 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
differs decidedly by the longer premaxillary bones which
reach to the nasals. The nasal bones are longer, and reach
forward as far as the first upper premolar; their breadth is
decidedly less than their length. The length of the narial
chamber is much less and never exceeds the interorbital
width of the skull as in the large-snouted species.
Key to the Races of kirki
Dorsal coloration very light bufFy-drab without tawny suffusion
minor
Dorsal coloration darker, showing marked tawny suffusion
Sides of body buffy, showing little contrast with the white
under-parts
Size small, length of hind foot 6^ inches kirki
Size large, length of hind foot 7/^ inches nyikce
Sides of body bright tawny-ochraceous, in marked contrast to white
under-parts
Size small, skull length ^^2 inches; ear small, less than 3 inches
in length hiyidei
Size large, skull length ^'^ to 5 inches; ear large, more than
3 inches in length cave^idishi
Typical Kirk Dikdik
Rhynchotragus kirki kirki
Neotragus kirkit Giinther, 1880, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 17; fig. head and skull.
Range. — Coast district of Jubaland south at least as
far as the Tana River. Occupies the northeastern limits
of the range of the species.
The typical race of Kirk dikdik was described by Doctor
Giinther from specimens sent to the British Museum by
Sir John Kirk, who obtained them from Brava, a port on
the coast of Italian Somaliland a short distance north of the
Juba River. Other specimens have been collected in the
vicinity of Lamu near the mouth of the Tana River. This
is the smallest race, the hind foot having a length from the
THE DIKDIKS 629
hock to the hoof of only 6yi inches. The northern race
minor of the desert interior regions is scarcely of larger size,
but kirki is much darker. In color it resembles the highland
races hindei and cavendishi, but is somewhat less rufous,
being more vinaceous on the sides.
Northern Kirk Dikdik
Rhynchotragus kirki minor
Rhynchotragus kirki minor Lonnberg, 191 2, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., vol.
IX, p. 65.
Range. — Watershed of the Northern Guaso Nyiro River
northward to Mount Marsabit and eastward as far, at least,
as the Lorian swamp, no doubt extending within a few
miles of the coast, where it intergrades with the typical
kirki.
This light-colored desert race was described by Lonn-
berg from specimens which he collected near Chanler Falls
in the lower Northern Guaso Nyiro River. It may be dis-
tinguished from the other races by its lighter color and
smaller size. The body color is buffy-drab, and the legs
and head are buffy-ochraceous. The color of the lower sides
bordering the white under-parts is buffy, and shows very
little contrast to the white. The measurements of adults in
the flesh are: length of head and body, male, 233^ inches,
female, 24^^ inches; tail, i}^ inches; hind foot, male, y^
inches, female, 8 inches; ear, 2^ inches. Greatest length oif
skull: male, 4.}i inches, female, 4.}4 inches; length of narial
chamber, male, i}4 inches, female, i^^^ inches. The longest-
horned male in a series of six adults has horns 2^ inches,
measured in a straight line, with a spread at the tips of 2)4
inches.
A large series have been examined in the National
Museum from the Northern Guaso Nyiro River and its
junction with the Lakiundu and from watering-places on
the Marsabit Road at Merille, Longaya, and Koya. The
race is confined to the lower desert levels to altitudes below
two thousand five hundred feet and is unknown on the
summits of the desert mountains.
630 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Nyika Kirk Dikdik
Rhynchotragus kirki nyikcs
Native Names: Duruma, kivi; Talta, sha.
Rhynchotragus kirki nyikce Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 7,
P- 3-
Range. — From the eastern and northern slopes of
Mount KiUmanjaro northward in the desert nyikae to the
Tana River; westward on the slopes of the inland plateau
to an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet.
The type of this race came from Ndi near the railway
station of Voi. In characters it resembles kirki most closely,
but the size is decidedly greater, equalling that of hindei
from which it differs by lighter coloration. The coloration
of the dorsal region is ochraceous-tawny, changing gradually
on the sides to buff. The whole dorsal region is vermicu-
lated by dusky annulations to the hair. The under-parts
are sharply defined against this vermiculated area by a wide
band of light ochraceous-buff succeeded by the pure white
of the median ventral area. The legs are uniform ochra-
ceous-tawny. The tail is buffy-gray vermiculated by dusky,
and the posterior border of the thighs is clothed by long white
hair in sharp contrast to the buffy-gray rump and sides.
The head has the coronal crest ochraceous-tawny vermicu-
lated only in the central part by dusky, and the snout is
lighter, being cinnamon-buff. The orbital area is white with
a blackish diagonal streak extending through the eye to the
anteorbital gland. The sides of the head are buffy faintly
vermiculated with dusky. The back of the ears is buffy,
and the inner side, the chin, and the lips are white. The
forethroat is pure ochraceous-buff, but the middle throat is
vermiculated heavily with dusky like nape.
The body size equals that of hindei. The largest horns
in a series of three males are: length, straight, 3 inches;
spread at tips, 2^ inches.
Specimens have been examined from the Voi district,
Maji ya Chumvi, and from Taveta on the southeastern
slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.
TilK \)\K\)\KS (y/A
UkaMBA Ku'K DlKhlK
Rhynchotragus kirki kindei
NIad'j'jua kirki hindei 'J homa;?, i'/-i2, /Inn. '^ Ma?. Nat. IJist., vol. V,
p. 242.
Range. — Confined to iJjc foolliill re^/ion fi;)fikin;.'^ tiic
hij^hlands from the southern boundary of Jiriti Ji f.ast
Africa north to tfie southern slopes of Mourjt Kenia between
the altitudes of two thousand five hundred and five thousand
feet.
llie ty[je of this species was collected at the ;^overn-
rncni p(jst of Kitui by IJoctfjr S. L. Hinde, to whom the
British Museum is indebted for ni;iny of its African types
of small mammals. We have examined specimens in the
National Museum from the Athi Plains and the station of
Mtoto Andei. Sir Alfred Pease has recorded in a letter
to Colonel Roosevelt his discovery of a family of spotted
dikdiks on his Kitan^a Farm near Machakos. While out
shcxjting he met a family party of three dikdiks: a male,
female, and half-^rown youn^, all of which were marked
by larj^e white blotches upon the flanks, shoulders, neck,
and rump. With the exception of the spots they differed
in no way from the ordinary dikdik found in the same
locality. The discovery of one individual showing partial
albinism of this sort would not be extraordinarily remark-
able, but the discovery of three individuals all showing the
same markings and associated together in a family is indeed
a really remarkable occurrence. Apparently in this family
at least the white markings are well established and are
transmitted to the offspring. The dikdik were under ob-
servation for some time at a distance of only fifteen yards,
but owing to the tender regard in which they were held by
the observer no attempt was made to collect a specimen.
No other case among dikdik of partial or complete albi-
nism is known to us. The proboscis occasionally shows
small white spots or flecks, but these are n(tvitr numerous
or extensive in area.
The Lkamba dikdik may be known by its dark colora-
tion and extensive tawny suffusion, the sides being fjright
tawny and the legs more uniform tawny. \u azc it is
632 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
larger than the coast and desert races, and only slightly
smaller than the Naivasha dikdik. No flesh measurements
are available. The longest horns in a series of three adults
are: length, 2^<4 inches; spread, i^ inches. Skull: greatest
length, 4iV inches; length of nasal chamber, i^ inches.
Naivasha Kirk Dikdik
Rhynchotragus kirki cavendishi
Native Name: Masai, engomani.
Madoqua cavendishi Thomas, 1898, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 278.
Range. — Distributed throughout the Rift Valley of Brit-
ish East Africa from Lake Baringo southward to the Ger-
man border; spreading westward in the southern part of its
range across the Loita Plains to the Amala River and the
southeastern drainage area of the Victoria Nyanza.
The specimen collected by Mr. H. S. H. Cavendish,
which has formed the basis for Thomas's description and
name of the present race, is of uncertain locality. The
type was one of a number of specimens bearing no locality,
which were collected in British East Africa by Cavendish
and presented to the British Museum. The describer errone-
ously attributed the dikdik to Lake Rudolf, which was one
of the districts visited by Cavendish. The type specimen,
however, agrees minutely with the large race found south of
Baringo, a district also visited by the collector and without
doubt the source of the type. The only race of kirki which
may possibly reach the Rudolf basin is the small, pale-
colored race, minor, with which it could not possibly be con-
founded. In 1909 Doctor J. A. Allen, of the American
Museum of Natural History of New York, described as
Madoqua langi specimens collected by Herbert Lang near
Lake Elmentaita. These specimens, however, are not dis-
tinguishable from cavendishi, which came without doubt
from a neighboring locality.
This race attains the maximum of size of the kirki group
and has also distinctly larger ears than other races. In
color it resembles its nearest geographical ally, hindei, but
is on an average somewhat less rufous, lacking the rufous
suffusion of the throat, and in its general grayness of color-
MAP 35 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE KIRK DIKDIK
1 Rhynchotragus kirki kirki 2 Rhynchotragus kirki viinor 3 Rhynchotragus^ kirki nyikce
4 Rhyyichotragus kirki hindei 5 Rhynchotragus kirki cavendishi
633
634 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
ation approaching nyikce. The flesh measurements of adult
specimens are: length of head and body, male, 25 inches,
female, 26 inches; tail, i}4 inches; hind foot, male, 7>^
inches, female, 8 inches; ear, 3>^ inches. Greatest length
of skull, male, 4^ inches, female, 5 inches; length of narial
chamber, male, i^ inches, female, lis inches. In a series of
three males the longest horns are 3^ inches with a spread
at the tips of 2}i inches. In British East Africa speci-
mens of this race have been secured at Lakes Naivasha
and Elmentaita, the Loita Plains, and the headwaters of
the Amala River.
CHAPTER XX
THE HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS
Rhinoceroses
Family Rhinocerotidce
All of the living rhinoceroses are ponderous, thick-
skinned mammals armed on the snout by one or two dermal
horns. The structure of the horns is peculiar among mam-
mals and quite unlike either the bony horns of the deer
or the hollow, chitinous horns of antelopes and their kindred.
The horn of the rhinoceros is made up of a compact, hard
mass of agglutinated, hair-like fibres which are an outgrowth
from the skin. The horns receive no bOny support from the
skull but rest on the nasal bones, where they are firmly held
in place by their continuity with the thick skin of the
snout. A slight concession, however, is made toward their
support by the part of the nasal bones upon which they
rest, this portion being set with numerous small, bony
tubercles. So constant are these bony tubercles that pale-
ontologists are enabled by such evidence to determine the
presence and position of horns of extinct species. The
horns are not strictly a family character, although so prom-
inent a feature of the later forms, for some of the oldest
genera were quite hornless. Rhinoceroses are evenly three-
toed, and are members of the odd-toed or perissodactyl
division of the hoofed mammals. In the structure of their
feet they are fairly closely allied to the tapirs and distantly
635
636 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
to the modern horses, only the remote ancestral forms of
which were three-toed like the rhinoceros. In shape of
body the rhinoceros is not very unlike the hippopotamus,
the body being almost equally long, but the legs are in
most of the forms decidedly longer, so that the animal is
capable of travelling at really astonishing speed considering
its immense size. The skin is very thick, dense in texture,
and usually quite hairless. The skin of the two African
genera resembles in general appearance that of the elephant,
but it is of a very different quality, being much denser and
more armor-like. The hair is confined in the existing
species chiefly to the tips of the ears and the tail, but the
recently extinct woolly rhinoceros, which lived far north in
Europe and Asia, was clothed by a coat of long hair to pro-
tect it from the cold. In dental characters the various
genera of rhinoceroses exhibit much diversity, but the cheek-
teeth show a peculiar pattern of folds which are character-
istic of the family. The great bulk of the genera had well-
developed incisor teeth in both jaws, and some of the very
ancient types had canine teeth as well, but the living African
forms lack all indication of either incisor or canine teeth.
The cheek-teeth usually consist of the full number found
in mammals, that is, four premolars which have milk pred-
ecessors and three molars. The premolars and molars are
quite alike in shape and size, except the first premolar
which is usually small and sometimes wanting. The cheek-
teeth, as a rule, are composed only of dentine and enamel
and are broad-crowned, the crowns being thrown into two
transverse folds projecting inward with deep valleys sepa-
rating them. Certain forms, however, such as the white
rhinoceros of Africa and the woolly rhinoceros of the boreal
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 637
regions, have in addition to the dentine and enamel a thick
layer of cement which enters to an important degree into
the composition of the teeth. Such teeth represent the
highest speciahzation in rhinoceroses, and have long crowns
in which the folds are united so as to enclose the cement
layer as islands surrounded by enamel. Rhinoceroses are,
without doubt, long-lived forms, but little data, however,
are available upon which to base an estimate of the length
of life of an individual in its native state. As they are not
known to breed in captivity, practically nothing is known
regarding the length of the period of gestation. But one
young is produced at a birth. In body size the female is
but little inferior to the male. The mammae are two in
number.
The extinct forms of rhinoceroses are very numerous,
many different genera being represented throughout North
America, Eurasia, and Africa, but so numerous have been
the lines of divergence that it is quite impossible to trace
back through the maze of forms any of the modern genera.
The most ancient genera were contemporaneous in the
Oligocene in both Eurasia and North America, but in the
latter countr}^ they died out early in the Pliocene. In
Eurasia the family persisted to the present time, and the
modern Asiatic forms were evolved there during the Pliocene
and Pleistocene. Africa, no doubt, also played an important
part as a field of rhinoceros evolution, but, owing to the
almost complete absence of fossil-bearing deposits in that
continent, this is chiefly a matter of conjecture. The black
rhinoceros has been reported by Scott from the Pliocene of
Natal, and two other fossil species are described by Pomel
in the Pleistocene of Algeria. A more significant discovery,
638 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
however, Is that made by Oswald,* recently, of a tooth of
one of the ancient hornless rhinoceroses in Miocene beds at
Karungu on the east shore of the Victoria Nyanza. This
discovery seems to indicate nearly as great antiquity to the
rhinoceros in Africa as in either Eurasia or America. The
living species are confined to southern Asia, Sumatra, Java,
Borneo, and Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Until very
recently Siberia and northern Europe were the habitat of
the woolly rhinoceros, which was contemporaneous with
early man. The one-horned species of India and Java
seem always to have been limited to southern Asia and the
adjacent islands, in which region alone have fossil remains
of allied one-horned species been found. Two-horned rhinoc-
eroses, however, are found quite as wide-spread as '.the
geographical limits of the family. The African genera,
both of which lack teeth in the front part of the jaws, are
not met with in a fossil condition beyond the limits of
Africa, and they no doubt represent types peculiar to the
Ethiopian region.
Key to the Living Genera in Africa
Skull short, the posterior part not produced beyond the condyles; snout
produced into a pointed lip; nape of neck normal in
outHne; teeth without the cement layer and with
deep ridges on the inner side separated by open val-
leys; the first premolar persisting, the cheek-teeth
being seven on each side; base of first horn rounded
in front. Diccros
Skull greatly lengthened, the posterior part produced far beyond the
condyles; snout ending square in front, the mouth
being broadly truncate; nape of neck marked by a
prominent fleshy hump; teeth with a thick cement
* 191 3. Journ. E. Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. Ill, No. 6, p. 4.
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 639
layer, the crowns solid and rectangular in shape, the
valleys being filled with cement; first premolar shed
early, the cheek-teeth in the adult being six on each
side; base of first horn square in front
Ceratotherium
Black Rhinoceros
Diceros
Diceros Gray, 1821, London Med. Rapes., vol. XV, p. 306; type Rhinoc-
eros bicornis.
The black rhinoceros differs so widely in many impor-
tant details of its structure from the other living forms that
it has been found necessary to separate it generically from
them. It has been the custom of naturalists to include all
the living forms in one genus, Rhinoceros, owing to the small
number of species. This has been done merely as a matter
of convenience, but we feel that the more logical course is
to classify the various forms on the merits of their struc-
tural differences or affinities so as to balance them with
other groups. Such a division into several genera will also
facilitate the tracing of their relationships with the numer-
ous fossil forms. In conformity with the white and the
Sumatran, it carries two dermal horns on the snout, the
rear one being situated directly behind the front one and
usually is much smaller and compressed laterally into a
blade-like knob. The genus Diceros, of which the black
rhinoceros is the type, differs almost as radically from the
other African genus, Ceratotherium, or white rhinoceros, as
from either the single-horned Indian or the two-horned
Sumatran rhinoceroses. It differs from the white by having
a short head which is deeply concave in profile on the top
owing to the great elevation of the occipital part. In these
two characters it resembles the Asiatic one-horned and two-
horned genera, but differs from them by its want of incisor
teeth and the distinctness of the post-tympanic process.
The genus is much less specialized than Ceratotherium; its
short skull and the simple structure of its short-crowned
teeth ally it much more closely to the remote ancestral
forms. The black rhinoceros in its dentition still shows
traces of the incisor teeth, and occasionally also of canines.
640 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
but such teeth persist as mere rudiments beneath the gums
and never become functional. A more permanent feature
of this sort is the persistence of the first premolar through-
out life. The genus to-day is represented by a single
species, hiconiis, and is confined to Ethiopian Africa, but
in the Pleistocene it occurred as far north as Algeria in the
Mediterranean region. Besides the Pleistocene species of
Algeria another has been described from Northern Rhodesia
by Chubb, which is smaller but closely allied to the living
bicornis. Scott described some cheek-teeth of a rhinoceros
from the Pliocene of Natal, which he referred to a new
species, but they are quite indistinguishable in size or shape
from those of bicornis. It is evident from these discoveries
that bicornis has long been an inhabitant of Africa and
doubtless is a form which originated on that continent.
The black or common African rhinoceros was fairly
■plentiful in most parts of East Africa which we visited; there
were stretches of territory, however, in which we found
none, as, for instance, on the Uasin Gishu. Why the species
was absent from these places we cannot say, for elsewhere
we came across them in all kinds of country. They were
found in the dense, rather cold forests of Mount Kenia ; they
were found in the forest country near Kijabe; they were
common in the thick thorn scrub and dry bush jungle in
many places; and in the Sotik and along the Guaso Nyiro
of the north, as well as here and there elsewhere, they were
to be seen every day as we journeyed and hunted across the
bare, open plains. " Plentiful " is, of course, a relative term ;
there were thousands of zebras, hartebeests, gazelles, and
other buck for every one or two rhinos; it is doubtful
whether we saw more than two or three hundred black
rhinos all told, and we do not remember seeing more than
half a dozen or so on any one day. Probably they were
most abundant in the brush and forest on the lower slopes
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 641
of the northern base of Kenia, where, however, they were
hard to see. They prefer dry country, although they need
to drink freely every twenty-four hours.
Apparently the cow does not permit her old calf to stay
with her after the new calf is born. We never saw a cow
with two calves of different ages (or, for the matter of that,
of the same age); yet many times we saw a cow followed
by a half-grown or more than half-grown beast that must
have been several years old. Generally we found the bulls
solitary and the cows either solitary or followed by their
calves. Occasionally we found a bull and cow, or a bull,
cow, and calf, together. There is no regular breeding time;
the calf may be produced at any season. It follows its
mother within a very few days, or even hours, of its birth,
and is jealously guarded by the mother. When very young
any one of the bigger beasts of prey will pounce on it, and
instances have been known of a party of lions killing even
a three parts grown animal. The adult fears no beast of
the land, not even the lion, although it will usually move
out of the elephant's way. Yet the crocodile, or perhaps a
party of crocodiles, may pull a rhino under water and drown
it. Mr. Fleischman, of Cincinnati, not merely witnessed
but photographed such an incident, in the Tana River,
where the rhinoceros was seized by the hind leg as it stood
in the water, could not reach the bank, and after a pro-
longed struggle was finally pulled beneath the surface. Such
an occurrence must be wholly exceptional; for the rhi-
noceros shows no hesitation in approaching deep water, not
merely drinking but bathing in it.
The animals are fond of wallowing in mud holes, and
also at times in dusty places. Often the dung will be
642 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
dropped anywhere, if the rhino is travelhng much; but
where a rhino, as is often the case, is spending its whole
time in one rather Hmited locahty, it returns again and
again to the same place to dung. It kicks and scatters the
dung about with its hind feet — not its horn. In one place
we found a cow rhino which had evidently been living for
many weeks in the river-bottom of the Athi. There was
plenty of food in the brush jungle which filled the spaces
between the trees, and which afforded thick cover; there
was abundant water in pools near by; and evidently the
rhino had kept close to the immediate neighborhood. The
dunging place was kicked and ploughed up, and it looked
as if the beast had rolled and wallowed much, in addition to
kicking around the dung. This rhino spent its time in the
immediate vicinity of its drinking-place, and during most of
the day lay up in the dense shade of the green river-bottom
jungle, apparently feeding at night and in the early morning
and late evening. In other localities the animals differed in
their habits. On the Northern Guaso Nyiro we found the
rhinos drinking once every twenty-four hours, at night, and
then travelling back at a good gait in a fairly direct course
for eight or ten miles into the wastes of leafless thorn scrub,
upon which they fed and in which they passed their noon-
day hours of rest. In the Sotik the rhinos spent their whole
time in the bare, open plains, drinking at one or another of
the widely scattered, rapidly drying little pools. They usu-
ally drank at dusk; that is, about nightfall, and again about
sunrise. Sometimes during the noon hours they lay out in
the open, without a particle of cover; sometimes they lay
under an acacia, or wild olive, or candelabra euphorbia.
They sometimes stood while resting, but usually lay down,
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 643
either on their sides or in a kneeUng position. They not
only fed on the thorny, partially leaved twigs — the black
rhino is a browser, whereas the white rhino is exclusively
a grazer — but also fed greedily in the bare plains on the
low-growing, shrubby plants, only a few inches high, with
woody stems. I do not believe that they were really graz-
ing, but together with the shrub stems they cropped they
swallowed the tough jointed grass. They also ate aloes
and a kind of prickly euphorbia with a blistering juice; it
is hard to understand how even their palates could stand
the thorns and the acrid sap. We saw them feed at noon;
once we stumbled on one feeding by moonlight; but their
favorite feeding times were in the morning and afternoon.
Like other game, rhinos are assailed by various insect
pests. Biting flies annoy them much; even when resting
their ears are usually in motion to drive away their winged
assailants. The ticks swarm on them; loathsome creatures,
swollen with blood, which might be so crowded under the
armpits, in the groin, and in the soft parts generally that
they looked like mussels on an old dock. We do not quite
understand why the tick-birds fail to keep down these ticks.
These tick-birds, rather handsome, noisy creatures, are in
most places the well-nigh invariable attendants of rhinos
when the latter dwell on the plains or in fairly open bush.
They clamber all over their huge hosts, like nuthatches
round a tree trunk, and usually go in flocks. So invariably
are they attendants upon the big game that if we heard
them chattering as we threaded our way among bushes we
were always at once on the alert to see a rhino. Sometimes
they are wary, and chatter and fly off on seeing the hunter;
at other times they pay but little heed; and the rhino may
644 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
or may not have Its suspicions aroused when they fly away.
If a party is seen on the wing, by watching their flight until
they Hght it may be possible to discover the rhino.
The hook-lipped rhino is dull of wit and eyesight. Its
sense of smell is good, and so is its hearing; but its vision
is astonishingly bad. We doubt if it sees better than a very
near-sighted man. Again and again we have walked up to
one, on an absolutely bare and level plain, to within a hun-
dred yards without its paying the least heed. We wore
dull-colored clothes, of course, and made no abrupt motions;
but it was unnecessary to take advantage of cover until we
were well within a hundred yards. In thick brush it is
often difficult to approach, for all bush-dwellers are harder
to approach than plains-dwellers, as they cannot be seen
until within a distance so short that both their hearing and
their smell have in all probability given them warning.
But in all places, bush, forest, and open plain, it is the easiest
to approach of all the creatures that dwell in that particu-
lar habitat, because of the dulness of its brain-matter and
the poorness of its vision. It is the most stupid of the very
big creatures. It seems to have a marvellous memory for
local geography, as is shown by the way it will traverse
many miles of country to some remote water-hole in the mid-
dle of a vast and monotonous plain; and it has the patience
to stand motionless for many minutes listening for anything
suspicious. But these seem to be well-nigh its only lines of
mental effort. Its life is passed in feeding, travelling to and
from water, sleeping, and when awake and at leisure either
fidgeting, or much more often standing motionless to rest.
There is occasional love-making and the exhibition of occa-
sional fits of truculence and petulance or of muddled curi-
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 045
osity. When one rhino comes within ken of another the
meeting always betrays bewilderment and incipient defiance
on the part of both. Apparently the first suggestion that
another rhinoceros is in the neighborhood always arouses
suspicion and potential resentment in the bosom of the rhi-
noceros to which the suggestion comes. Usually the rhino
which has heard, smelt, or dimly seen another trots toward
it quickly and then stands motionless for some minutes
close to it, in the effort to decide whether to adopt an atti-
tude of indifference or hostility — indifference almost always
carrying the day. They are silent beasts, but very rarely
utter a kind of squeal or squeak, apparently when courting.
They utter a shrill and long, often a steam-whistle scream
when dying; and they make a succession of puffs or snorts
while charging or even when only startled.
The recognized presence of men rouses in the rhinoceros
several emotions, which in the order of their intensity we
should put as bewilderment, fear, dull curiosity, and trucu-
lence. If the men are merely seen, usually the only emo-
tions aroused are bewilderment and curiosity; if smelt, fear
is the usual result; but in a certain number of cases even the
sight or the smell of men arouses senseless rage. Some
rhinos are always cross and evil-tempered; but many others
which are normally good-natured now and then have fits of
berserker fury. Anything conspicuous which arouses their
interest may also arouse their hostility. White has an evil
attraction for them. Our friends the McMillans, while
travelling through a rhino country, found that the two white
horses of their cavalcade were so frequently charged that
they finally painted them khaki-color. We have never seen
them charge other game, and gazelles and hartebeests feed
646 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
in their immediate neighborhood with indifference; yet we
have been informed by trustworthy eye-witnesses of one
rhinoceros charging a herd of zebra, and another some
buffalo. The rhinoceros gets out of the way of the elephant.
It will unquestionably on occasions charge men and domestic
animals entirely unprovoked. Twice we have known of one
charging an ox wagon; in one case an ox was killed; in the
other the rhino got entangled in the yokes and trek tow,
and the driver, an Africander, lashed it lustily with his
great whip, until it broke loose and ran off, leaving the ox-
span tumbled in wild confusion. The year before we were
at Nyeri one killed a white man, a surveyor, near that sta-
tion, charging him without any provocation at all. At that
time all the rhinos in that immediate neighborhood seemed
to suffer from a fit of bad temper; they kept charging any
one they met, and killed several natives. At last the district
commissioner undertook a crusade against them, and killed
fifteen, evidently including the various vicious ones, for
from that time all attacks on human beings ceased. Rhinos
frequently attack the long lines of porters on a safari, if
they pass to windward of it. Probably this is not, as a rule,
done from ferocity, but from angry bewilderment, the rhino
finding the scent of man in his nostrils whichever way he
goes, and finally thinking he is surrounded, and charging the
line. Usually he merely runs through the line, tossing any
porter who happens to be in his way; but he may grow irri-
tated and turn and hunt down a porter. One man was thus
killed while we were in Africa. Von Hohnel, the companion
of Teleki and Chanler on their explorations, was on one
occasion thus hunted down and very badly wounded by a
cow rhino which had charged through the safari and had
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 647
then returned on her footsteps. Mr. Hurlburt, the head of
the American mission at Kijabe, had been wantonly charged
by a rhino which killed his mule.
A dozen times we came across rhinos while we were on
safari, or while we were on the trail of game. In such cases
one of us kept watch over the rhino, rifle cocked, while
the safari, or, if we were hunting, the trackers, marched so
as to keep to leeward. Once or twice the rhino never no-
ticed us. On the other occasions the beast saw us, but
dimly, and evidently could not make out what we were.
It would gaze toward us, head and tail up, and ears for-
ward, and make little runs to and fro, perhaps even advanc-
ing a few yards; but in no case did the beast actually charge.
In one instance, however, it did charge and toss a man, a
few minutes after we had left it. This was a rhino we had
come across while we were trailing a buffalo herd. Cun-
inghame did not wish to leave the trail, so Colonel Roosevelt
went toward the rhino, and by waving his hat and shouting—
not too loud, for fear of scaring the buffalo — he finally made
it move off a couple of hundred yards, and he and Cuning-
hame went on unmolested. But a quarter of an hour after-
ward three of the porters returned to look for a knife which
one of them had dropped while we were engaged in frighten-
ing away the rhino; and this time the brute came for them,
and tossed one, goring him in the thigh, and then galloped
on without turning. Whenever they got our wind they
always ran, except on one occasion when a cow rhino ad-
vanced on us, unprovoked, from thick brush, tossing and
twisting her head. We are not sure that she meant to
charge; but when she got within forty yards we grew un-
pleasantly uncertain as to her intentions and shot her.
648 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Stewart Edward White states that on one occasion, near
the Tana River, he struck a locahty where rhinoceros after
rhinoceros charged quite unprovoked, and he had to shoot
half a dozen. We have known a rhino charge through a
camp at night and cause wild panic; they not infrequently
charge hunters or travellers after dark.
Personally, we consider the rhinoceros the least danger-
ous of all really dangerous game, although many good hunt-
ers hold the contrary view. The first one any of us saw, a
bull, charged savagely when mortally wounded at a distance
of a little over thirty yards, and was killed just thirteen
yards from the hunter. But we were never really charged
again. Colonel Roosevelt hit and knocked over one animal
which we had stalked, as it was galloping toward us at a
distance of seventy or eighty yards, but we think that this
rhino was curious rather than enraged, and would not have
charged home. Kermit was charged by one which he had
mortally wounded, but it turned upon receiving another
and much slighter wound. Two or three of our American
friends who have hunted in East Africa have had narrow
escapes from rhinos which charged after being wounded, or
when the effort was made to photograph them.
Unquestionably, compared to his mild and placid
square-mouthed kinsman, the hook-lipped rhino is a
fidgety, restless, irritable, and at times dangerous, crea-
ture. Yet his occasional truculence is more than offset
by his stupidity and dull eyesight, so far as the actual con-
test with the hunter is concerned. As far as we know but
one white man has ever been killed while hunting rhinos in
East Africa (the English official already mentioned was not
hunting the beast which killed him). This was a German,
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 649
Doctor Kolb, who killed scores of rhinos, and was finally
mortally hurt by a cow which, upon being wounded, charged
him and thrust her horn through his stomach. An English
official was also crippled for life by a rhino he had wounded.
In dense bush a rhino is undoubtedly a dangerous antago-
nist at times, as well as being difficult to approach. On the
open plains we found them easy to approach and easy to
kill, and only occasionally dangerous; they were slow to de-
tect us, and then spent some moments deliberating before
concluding either to make off or to charge. But though less
dangerous than other dangerous game when hunted, the
rhinoceros is more prone than any other beast to act aggres-
sively when entirely unprovoked. The very stupidity and
dulness of sense which tend to render his truculence of little
danger to the hunter immensely add to the menace which
that truculence contains for the non-hunter, the wayfarer,
who stumbles across him. He fails to make out the man
until close by, and then waits, stupid and curious, until he
suddenly thinks himself menaced, or is excited to rage by
seeing the stranger near at hand, and forthwith charges.
There are some rhinos which charge from sheer wickedness;
but we are convinced that stupidity and curiosity are chiefly
responsible for the conduct of the average rhino, which makes
people think that it is about to charge them. When it does
charge, however, it shows astonishing speed and agility for
such an apparently unwieldy animal, whipping round in its
tracks like a polo pony, and galloping at a pace that forces
a horse to stretch himself. If it loses sight of the man it
will sometimes quarter for him like a pointer dog, swinging
its large head near the earth and snuffing for his tracks.
The 'Ndorobo told us that they found the rhino more dan-
650 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
gerous to assail than the buffalo, because it often had to be
attacked where there were no trees.
The rhinoceros, unlike the elephant and buffalo, does not
haunt the neighborhood of the negro villages, to make raids
on the fields and gardens. It is a beast of the lonely wastes.
Even in the dry desert it is at home if there is an occasional
pool of water; and it is only at these desert drinking-pools,
when driven thither by thirst, that the solitude-loving beasts
are found in any number. A score or over may congregate
at night round such a pool, to which each has trodden his
path through a dozen miles of barren wilderness; and there
they may fight for the water. If two or three rhinoceroses —
a cow and calf, or a bull and a cow, perhaps with a calf— come
to such a pool together they do not loiter in the neighbor-
hood. But we have seen a single rhino remain by such a
pool, motionless for an hour, until another appeared, when
the two beasts approached each other, as if for company. It
seemed as if they had each known that the other would
come there about that time, and had reckoned on the meet-
ing. We have seen the same thing with other game, where
one individual waited with evident expectancy, as if at a
rendezvous, until another of the same species appeared.
But of course it is possible that in these cases the waiting
animal's keen senses made it aware that the other was some-
where in the neighborhood long before the onlooker could
discern the faintest hint of its presence.
Key to the Races of bicornis
Size larger, the skull exceeding 21 inches in length; concavity of upper
profile deep, more than 2]^ inches bicornis
Size smaller, the skull 20 inches or less in length; concavity of upper
profile 2 inches or less in depth somaliensis
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 651
Typical Black Rhinoceros
Diceros bicornis bicornis
Native Names: Swahili, jam; Masai, emune; Kikuyu, huria; Kikamba,
•mbuzya.
Rhinoceros bicornis Linnaeus, 1758, Systema Naturae, 10 ed., p. 56.
Range. — In East Africa from German East Africa
northward to the south bank of the Tana River, westward
through northern Uganda as far as the east bank of the
Nile, and north as far as Mongolia and the north end of
Lake Rudolf; west of the Victoria Nyanza the northern
distribution is limited by the Kagera River; absent from
Uganda proper, the Kavirondo country, and the moist,
tropical coast belt from the Sabaki River southward.
The black rhinoceros has an extensive range in Africa
from the Cape region northward to Upper Egypt and from
the East Coast westward to Nigeria. It is lacking through-
out the whole Congo basin and also locally throughout
much of the range as here defined. Large rivers have a
peculiar effect in limiting its dispersal locally. In the upper
Nile region it is found only on the east bank and in northern
German East Africa it is found no farther north than the
south bank of the Kagera River. Moist or damp tropical
districts seem to be distasteful to it, and on this account
it is lacking from the Congo basin, central and western
Uganda, and the moist strip of lowland flanking the East
Coast from Mombasa southward. Dense upland forest
is also avoided by them, although they may be found at
times in the lower parts of such forests or in thick bush
bordering them.
The black rhinoceros is still found in Upper Egypt in
the provinces of Kassala and Senaar and also in the Lake
Chad region. From the Cape region of South Africa it
seems to have been first made known to European civ-
ilization in 1650. At the present time it is quite extinct
in the Cape Colony and the region just north of it, and is
not found in a wild state except in remote districts near
the Zambesi River. Formerly, in this region, the rhinoce-
roses were separated into two races, on the basis of horn
shape, the normal one in which the front horn greatly ex-
(;r>L> ATRICAN CAMK ANIMALS
(I'l'dc'd llu- liar one hciii^ considered the rommon species
and those having the two horns of nearly e(|ual size hein^
the keilloa rai e. Tliese (hsl ini t ions, liowever, have lon^
since been abandoned, and to-day a single h)rni is recog-
nized tluou^liont tlie greater part of Africa and another
sniaHer one in tlie desert re|!;i()n of I'.ast Alric a and Sonia-
liland. Tlie iiorns everywhere show ^reat diversity of
shape and no dependence for racial characters can be
assi|j;ned to them. This is ovvinj.', in a measure, to their
bein^ skin structures solely without any clelinite connection
with the bony structure of the skull. They thus have ^reat
freedom of form and position and show decided variation
in number at times, 'rhree-hornecl spec imens are occasion-
ally met with, and a live-horned one has recently been re-
corded. This one is described by Rowland Ward in his
well-known " Records of \V\^ ( lame," who cjuotes the original
discoverer to the effect that besides the two front horns the
three rear horns which follow are ^ood-sized, the shortest
bein^ nine inches lon^, but they are not all in line; some
s|)rin^ laterally from the bases of the others.
Speke and (Irant met with j^reat numbers ol' black
rhinoceroses in Kara^we, just west of the Victoria Nyanza
and south oi" tlie Uganda l)oundary in what is now (lerman
territory. Hesides the black species they fancied that the
white also inhabited this district, and they referred certain
lon^-horned sj)ecimens of the black to that species. In
their account of the ^ame animals met with they state
accurately the well-known difference in the shape ol the
lips in the two rhinoceroses, but ^ive a li|;ure ol a typical
pointed-li|)pecl rhinoceros head as that of a white sj)ecimen.
The same re}j;ion was visited by Stanley some years later,
and he also ^ives an account of the ^reat numbers ol rlii-
iiocc'ioses met with and the killing ol several lor lood. lie
refers to some of the spec imens as white, his statement re-
ferring merely to tluii color, he bein^ apparently cpiite
unaware of the existciu c of the sj^ecies to which sportsmen
have ai)plied the name "white." Since these early days
several sportsmen well accpiainted with the distinguishing
characters of the two species have visited Kara^we and
have found only the black s|)ecies in the district.
The black iliinoceros of V/Ast Africa is occasionally re-
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS or>:i
ferred to in natural-history literature as a race, holmwoodi^
described by Sclater in 1893, and based on two extremely
lon^ front horns having a length of more than forty inches,
and (obtained l)y purcliase at Zanzil)ar l)y Hohnwood. The
describer of the species supposed the horns to belong to a
distinct race having very long and slender front horns.
They, however, represent merely the extremes in length of
several hundred horns which have reached Zanzibar as
articles of trade accumulated by safaris in the interior of
the continent. As the rhinoceroses of East Africa are not
distinguishable by horn characters or by size from those of
South Africa, the name holmzuoodi is at present not ap[)lica-
ble to any race. We have examined several skulls of blac k
rhinoceroses from South Africa in the British Museum and
have found them quite indistinguishable from specimens
from East Africa.
The black rhinoceros has not received its common
English name because its coloration is actually bhuker
than that of other species, but rather to contrast it with
the other African rhinoceros which has been so unfortunate
as to have the designation of *' white" bestowed upon it.
Under these circumstances we may descril)e the black rhi-
noceros as slightly blacker than the white one, but both
would be considered black in color by the average observer.
The color of the skin of the black rhinoceros, upon close
scrutiny, is found to vary from a deep neutral gray to black-
ish-brown. The color is uniform over the whole dorsal
surface, but becomes on the belly and under-parts slightly
lighter and more grayish. About the groins and the
axillae it is dull whitish and quite devoid of dark pigment.
Both sexes are cjuite alike in color. The calves are usually
deep neutral gray and usually a shade lighter than their
parents. The body is absolutely hairless with the excep-
tion of the tij)s of the ears, the tip of the tail, and the eye-
brows, which parts are clothed by a fringe of black hair.
7'he tail is furnished along the two edges of its compressed
ti[) by a crest of hair which f)rojects stiffly out in line with
the compressed surface, the two crests meeting at the ti[)
but not forming a tuft distinct from the lateral crests.
The hair has a length of from 4 to 6 inches and covers
usually merely the terminal 5 inches of the tail. The hair
%'
654 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
covering of the ears is much shorter than that of the tail,
being i^ inches in length and confined to the terminal
third on the extreme edge of the ear-conch. The eyebrows
are armed by a few stiff black hairs, but they are quite in-
conspicuous in such a colossal animal. This scanty hair
covering is black except occasionally at the tips where it
fades to brownish. The skin is quite smooth, the only
definite folds being a transverse one on the foreleg above
the knee and another across the nape immediately behind
the ears. This latter fold, however, disappears when the
head is lowered in feeding. Besides these large folds, the
sides of the body are streaked by narrow, rib-like folds, a
peculiarity not found on other rhinoceroses. These folds,
however, are quite independent of the ribs, although they
show a similar arrangement and direction. The calves
are marked by these peculiar rib-like folds quite as dis-
tinctly as the adults.
The black rhinoceros is very little inferior in size to
either the white or the single-horned Indian species, but is
somewhat different in body shape from both. From the
white it may be distinguished, aside from the shorter head,
by its slightly longer body and the absence of the fleshy
hump on the nape. The great Indian rhinoceros is at
once distinguishable from it by its folded skin, which has
the appearance of plates of armor, and by its shorter legs.
The largest specimen in bulk of body in the National
Museum is an old male from the Loita Plains, British East
Africa, shot by Colonel Roosevelt. This one measured, in
the flesh: 12 feet 3 inches in length of head and body,
measured along the contour of the back; tail, 30 inches;
hind foot, from the hock to the tip of the middle hoof, 17^2
inches; ear length from notch, g}4 inches; standing height
at the withers, 4 feet 9 inches. The greatest length of the
skull of this specimen is 2^}4 inches, measured from the tip
of the nasal boss to the end of the occipital crests. The
largest female is also a specimen from the Loita Plains shot
by Colonel Roosevelt. She is but little less in size than the
male and exceeded him in the height dimension; but this
superiority in height is doubtless due to some error in
taking the measurement rather than to an actual differ-
ence, as the skull and length of the specimen are both less
BLACk KllINiu 1 U<>>, FE.MALK, SEVEN YEARS OLD
From Mwanza, German East Africa
In the New York Zoological Park
! *« -\ T>>> ^\
>!>
>
^ ji k
.■* .
I MALI. AMI -l I
NILE WHITE Kill Mil 1,1<
Rhino Camp near VVadelai
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt
LIVING SPECIMENS OF AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES
HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 655
than those of the male. This female measured: length of
head and body along contour, ii feet 3 inches; tail, 26^
inches; hind foot, 17 inches; ear, 8^ inches; height at
withers, 5 feet i inch. The greatest length of the skull is
23 inches, which is but half an inch less than the male.
Many of the old adults approach these dimensions very
closely, and show surprisingly little variation in size con-
sidering their great bulk. The skulls of fully adult animals
from British East Africa range in greatest length from 2i>^
inches to 23^ inches. The female skulls may be distin-
guished from the male by their lesser width across the back
or occipital part. To this portion of the skull are attached
the great muscles which move the head and make the horns
effective in fighting, and it is no doubt this latter function
which has carried the development of the occipital part of
the skull in the male beyond that of the female. The nasal
boss or rounded tip of the nasal bones upon which the front
horn rests exhibits no differences in the two sexes such as we
find in the white species, or rather genus. In conformity
with this similarity in nasal bones in the two sexes we find
the horns indistinguishable in size of base. Although the
female does not carry a front horn^ having a smaller base,
she usually carries the longer and more slender horns. The
front and rear horns vary greatly, however, in respect to
one another. The typical condition is a front horn three
or four times the length of the rear horn, rounded in outline,
tapering gradually to a sharp point, and curving backward
in a wide arc. From such horns as these there is every
intermediate condition of relative length to the keitloa
variety in which the rear horn equals or exceeds the front
one in size. The usual length of the front horn is approxi-
mately 16 inches, but the record horns exceed this dimen-
sion greatly. The longest specimen in the National Museum
is one having a length of 29 inches, shot by Kermit Roose-
velt near Meru, a government station situated on the north-
east slope of Mount Kenia. The record horn for Africa,
recorded by Rowland Ward, is one with a length of ^3/^
inches, from East Africa, now in the possession of Doctor C.
H. Osman. The second longest is one of 47 inches in length
belonging to the well-known district commissioner of Brit-
ish East Africa, Doctor S. L. Hinde. We have examined at
656 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
the National Museum some thirty specimens of skins and
skulls from the Loita, Kapiti, and Athi Plains, the northern
slopes of Mount Kenia and Taveta on the southwest flank
of Kilimanjaro in British East Africa; from Gondokoro,
Uganda; and Mashonaland, Southern Rhodesia. Other
specimens examined at the British Museum have come from
northern Abyssinia, British East Africa, and Mashonaland.
Somali Black Rhinoceros
Diceros bicornis somaliensis
Native Names: Somali, wiyil; Galla, zuartses.
Diceros bicornis somaliensis Potocki, 1900, Sport in Somaliland, p. 82.
Range. — From the desert nyika zone of the northern
Guaso Nyiro River and the north bank of the Tana River
northward throughout the Lake Rudolf region to the Rift
Valley of southern Abyssinia; east as far as western Somali-
land and west as far as the east shore of Lake Rudolf.
Count Potocki has unwittingly become the authority
for the name of the small race of the black rhinoceros in-
habiting western Somaliland and the desert south of it.
In his account of his hunting experiences in Somaliland, as
narrated in "Sport in Somaliland," he mentions the rhinoc-
eros of Somaliland, giving its scientific name as Rhinoceros
bicornis somaliensis, and states that it does not differ from
the rhinoceros of central Africa, but that specimens first
obtained by Captain Swayne some years previously in
Somaliland are said to differ, and he therefore apparently
applies the name somaliensis under the assumption that
this is the name by which it is already known. Count
Teleki was the first sportsman to call attention to this race,
which he pointed out in Von Hohnel's narrative of his dis-
covery of Lake Rudolf. He refers to it as a smaller race
than that inhabiting the highland country of East Africa,
and records meeting with it first a short way south of Lake
Rudolf and thence northward along the east shore of
the lake to its extreme northern end. In distribution it
coincides in a general way with that of the reticulated
giraffe, Grevy zebra, and desert wart-hog. Lydekker has
recently given a short account of this race in the Proceed-
ings of the Zoological Society of London for 191 1.
MAP 36 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE BLACK RHINOCEROS
1 Diceros bicornis bicornis 2 Diceros bicornis somaliensis
657
658 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The Somali race of the black rhinoceros differs chiefly
by being smaller than the typical form of British East
Africa and the region south of it. The skull shows a flatter
outline, the occipital crest being much less elevated than
in the larger race. The depth of this dorsal concavity
varies from i}{ inches to 2^ inches and averages a half
inch less than specimens from the highlands of British East
Africa. The body coloration is also slightly lighter, being
neutral gray, and the ears have a shorter fringe of hair at
their tips. Two specimens are in the National Museum,
shot by Paul J. Rainey on the low desert plains in the
vicinity of the Northern Guaso Nyiro. The skins of these
two specimens are neutral gray and distinguishable by their
lighter color and shorter growth of hair on the ear tips from
specimens from the Loita Plains of British East Africa.
Both of these specimens are females. The older and more
typical one showed the following measurements in the flesh:
head and body, 9 feet 8 inches; tail, 26 inches; hind foot,
17 inches; ear, 7^ inches. The skull has a length of 21^
inches. A very old skull from Longaya Spring, with the teeth
worn down almost to the gums, has a length of 2o3<( inches,
which is the average length for the race. The horns do not
differ in shape or relative size from those of the typical race.
The length of the front one in the specimen of which the
flesh measurements have been given was 28 inches, while
another one has a horn length of 22 inches, but these are
both exceptionally long-horned specimens, and were the
longest seen among some thirty or forty observed in the
field. The Somaliland record given by Ward is 29^^ inches.
Besides the specimens examined at the National Museum,
from the lower course of the Northern Guaso Nyiro and
the region north of it toward Mount Marsabit, specimens
from Somaliland have been examined in the British Museum
and in Powell-Cotton's collection at Quex Park.
CHAPTER XXI
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS
Ceratotheriuvi
Ceratotherium Gray, 1867, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 1027; type Rhinoceros simus.
The white rhinoceros, hke the black, represents a dis-
tinct type of which it is the sole living member. In fact,
it is the most highly specialized form living. Its extreme
specialization is brought about by the lengthening of the
skull until it has become remarkably dolichocephalic or
long-headed. The teeth are quite as specialized as its
skull, and in some respects parallel those of horses. Like
the horses, the crowns have become very long or hypso-
dont, and the cement layer has grown in thickness until
it forms an important part of the grinding surface of the
teeth. The teeth are no longer composed of loops which
are separated by deep valleys and are open on the inside,
but the loops have united and enclose the cement layer
as islands or fossettes in the tooth. The crown is per-
fectly flat and shows a complicated pattern of alter-
nating folds of enamel, dentine, and cement. This tooth
specialization has been brought about by the grass diet,
the lengthening of the crowns and their increased surface
being necessary in order to masticate the tough grass stems
which form the chief part of their food. The dental appa-
ratus of the other living species of rhinoceroses, which are
chiefly browsing animals, consists of short-crowned teeth,
659
660 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
with a surface made up of ridges separated by open valleys.
Such a tooth structure is capable of masticating the softer
food of a browsing animal, but is less able to stand the
wear which a grass diet would demand. The recently ex-
tinct woolly rhinoceros was in some respects like the white,
being a long-headed, long-toothed form, but it had a very
peculiar snout, the nasal bones curving downward and unit-
ing with the premaxillary in a solid, bony mass. This sort
of structure gave it a long ridge-like or compressed base to
the front horn, which projected forward, owing to the down-
ward curvature of the nasal bones upon which it rested.
Some naturalists have suggested a close blood relationship
between the woolly and the white, but they are really only
remotely related. The white rhinoceros resembles its geo-
graphical associate, the black, in having two horns and
lacking both incisor and canine teeth. The white rhinoc-
eros is doubtless, like the black, a form which has had its
origin on the continent on which it is still found. The
only known member of the genus is the living white
rhinoceros, of which two races are recognized, one, simum, in
South Africa, occupying the territory from the Zambesi
River southward, and the other, cottoni, widely separated in
the upper Nile region.
Nile White Rhinoceros
Ceratotherium simum cottoni
Native Names: Aluru, kenga; Sudani, khartyt; Bongo, hasha; Dy oor umzvok.
Rhinoceros simus coito7ii Lydekker, 1908, Field (London), vol. Ill, p. 319.
Range. — West side of the Nile from the Aran River
opposite Wadelai northward through the Lado Enclave,
along the west bank as far as Shambe, and west across the
Bahr-el-Ghazal drainage to the Dar Fertit country, but not
known to extend beyond the Nile watershed.
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 661
The Nile race of the white rhinoceros is the only one
which still exists in a wild state. The southern race at the
present time is represented by some dozen living individuals
which are strictly preserved on an estate in Zululand. These
are the survivors of the immense numbers which formerly
inhabited the country between the Zambesi and Orange
Rivers. In the Nile Valley they are confined to the dis-
trict west of the river and are of local distribution only.
The southern limit is the Arau River, which enters the Nile
opposite Wadelai. Here they occur abundantly in the
vicinity of Rhino Camp and a few miles to the north of
this spot. They are not again met with until we proceed
some hundred miles northward to the stations of Lado and
Kiro. The most northern record is one reported by Selous
west of the Shambe. Far westward several hundred miles
we have a further record by General Mahon of one shot in
the Dar Fertit country near the headwaters of the Bahr-el-
Ghazal drainage.
The distribution of this species is everywhere bounded
by rivers, both in the south of Africa and in the Nile Valley,
They are found most abundantly in the close proximity of
the Nile but do not occur on the east bank. In South
Africa a similar impassable boundary was formed for the
species by the Zambesi River. They formerly occurred
abundantly on the south bank, but were never known to
occur on the north side. To the south the Orange River
formed the southern boundary. The river boundaries illus-
trate forcibly the strong aversion these great quadrupeds
have to crossing streams. This aversion must be due to
their fear of drowning, for they are quite immune from at-
tack by aquatic animals.
During historic times the white rhinoceros has not been
known to inhabit the region lying between the north bank
of the Zambesi and the Lado Enclave. This is a great
stretch of country of some eleven hundred miles and is
apparently well suited to the habits of the species under
consideration. At what period the white rhinoceros dis-
appeared from this intermediate territory is not known but
it is doubtless quite recent, for the Nile race has developed
but slight structural differences.
Explorers have reported the occurrence of white rhi-
662 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
noceroses in various parts of equatorial and central Africa
outside of the ranges here designated. Such records have
all been found to be due to mistaken identity or confusion
with the black species. The best known of such instances
are the references of Speke, Grant, and Stanley to white
rhinoceroses in Karagwe, German East Africa. The first
Nile specimen to reach Europe was a skull collected by
Major A. St. H. Gibbons, near Lado Station in 1900. This
specimen was sent to Mr. Oldfield Thomas of the British
Museum for examination, and upon its identification cre-
dence was given to the records of occurrence in Karagwe
by the early explorers. More recent investigation, however,
has shown these earlier reports to be erroneous. The race
was named by Lydekker several years after Major Gibbons's
discovery from the evidence furnished by skulls collected
by Major Powell-Cotton near the station of Lado. The
differences detected by Lydekker, greater width of the
nasal boss and its more forward projection, are sexual
characters confined to the male and are of no racial value.
The Nile race resembles very closely, in external appear-
ance and size, the southern race which formerly inhabited
the territory lying between the south bank of the Zambesi
and the north bank of the Orange Rivers. It differs, how-
ever, by the possession of a flatter dorsal outline to the
skull, owing to the lesser production of the occipital crests
above the dorsal plane, and by the smaller size of the teeth.
The measurements of skulls of the two races show them to
be of practically the same bodily size. The largest known
skull in bulk is one secured in the Lado Enclave by Kermit
Roosevelt, but this one exceeds only slightly the largest
preserved one from South Africa.
It has been said by first-rate observers that the square-
mouthed rhinoceros is of exactly the same color as the
hook-lipped rhinoceros. This did not seem to us to be the
case when we saw the square-mouthed rhinos living; they
seemed to be of a perceptibly lighter gray, which under
certain conditions of sky-effect and sun-angle seemed very
light indeed, although as dark as the ordinary rhino when
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 663
the sun was at another angle, or when the sky-effect was
different. A comparison of the skins shows that there is
a very real difference of color, the hook-lipped rhino being
of such a dark gray that it can legitimately be called black,
while the square-mouthed species is of a smoky gray, a
gray which can readily look whitish in certain lights. The
ordinary name is by no means so much of a misnomer as
we had supposed. The square-mouthed animal is totally
unlike the hook-lipped one, so much so that it undoubtedly
ought to go in a different genus; the two are at least as
distinct as the moose and the wapiti. According to our
observations the square-mouthed rhino averaged consider-
ably larger than the hook-lipped, but there was overlapping
between the smaller individuals of the first and the excep-
tionally big ones of the second; and the same was true of
the horns, which averaged longer in the square-mouthed.
African big-game animals offer many puzzling examples
of discontinuous distribution, and none more so than the
square-mouthed rhinoceros. It was first known from the
region between the Orange and the Zambesi, where it
abounded, but was practically exterminated in the late
eighties, so that now only a few individuals are left in a
game reserve. North of the Zambesi it is not found until
the great Nyanza Lakes are passed. Indeed, until Major
Gibbons discovered it on the left bank of the upper White
Nile, it was believed to be confined to South Africa. Exam-
ination of the series of specimens we brought home shows
that there is only the smallest distinction, hardly of sub-
specific value, between these two widely separated groups
of white rhinos. According to what Mr. Selous writes it
appears probable that all the rhinos west of the Nile belong
664 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
to the square-mouthed species, which is never found east
of the river, in the domain of the hook-hpped species. It
is an added singularity in the distribution of these African
rhinos that in South Africa they should have abounded in
the same localities, while in the north their ranges are
sharply divided by the upper Nile.
Our observations of the square-mouthed rhino were made
during the three or four weeks we spent at and near our
camp in the Lado, about midway between Lake Albert
Nyanza and Nimule. All told we must have seen about
fifty individuals. Of course we molested none after obtain-
ing the full series needed for the collection; the extreme
rarity of the species in collections rendered it of much im-
portance that the series should be full.
We found them rather more gregarious than the common
kind. Once we found four, and once five, together; in the
former case they were lying down, so that it was not a mere
fortuitous gathering to graze. Ordinarily they were found
singly, or a cow and calf — often two or three years old —
together; or a bull might be with the cow and calf. They
are purely grazers, grass-feeders, and live only where there
are great plains covered with the dry African pasturage;
but these plains are generally dotted with clumps of bushes,
and with a scattered growth of scantily leaved thorn-trees,
acacias. The country is crossed here and there by broad,
smooth, well-trodden trails, made by the elephants with
some help from the rhinos, and often travelled by other
game. We found the rhinos going to water, either at the
Nile or some pond, during the night. They would then
feed slowly back into the dry wastes, their spoor through the
tall grass or over the burnt places being readily followed by
NILE WHITE RHINOCEROS, MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Rhino Camp, Lado Enclave
Mounted by J. L. Clark in the United States National Museum
BLACK RHINOCEROS
Shot by J. T. McCutcheon
Tana River near Fort Hall
NILE WHITE RHINOCEROS, FEMALE
Shot by Kermit Roosevelt at Lado Enclave
Longest horned specimen, ;i inches
BLACK RHINOCEROS, FEMALE NILE WHITE RHINOCEROS, MALE
KEITLOA VARIETY Shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Lado Enclave
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Loita Plains
THE BLACK AND THE WHITE AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 665
expert trackers. About ten o'clock they lay down under
some tree; occasionally standing motionless in the half-
shade for an hour at a time. Usually we found them lying
on their sides, but sometimes kneeling. When roused they
sometimes jumped at once to their feet, and sometimes sat
up on their haunches like a dog; once Kermit saw one that
had been walking to and fro, trying to make out what he
was, sit down in this position. About mid-afternoon they
rose from sleep and began to feed, making their way to-
ward the water after nightfall. They fed a good deal during
the night also. They frequently rubbed their noses and
horns against the big ant-hills, for what purpose we cannot
say. In walking they held their heads very low, the huge,
square muzzles almost sweeping the ground. They trotted,
and, if alarmed, galloped at some speed.
They were slow, dull, stupid beasts, rather mild-tem-
pered. Once a badly wounded one made an attempt to
charge Kermit, and on another occasion, after he had spent
some time taking photographs of a cow and calf, he got so
close that the cow finally charged, coming on at a fair pace,
with the big, loose lips shaking from side to side. A big
calf, over half-grown, also charged him, and he had to turn
it by a shot in one cheek. None of the others of our party
were charged, although we frequently watched the huge
beasts close up, and then withdrew while they trotted to
and fro. They were not as nervous and irritable as the
black rhinos, and their eyes were even duller. Once having
spent some time watching a cow and her big calf feeding, as
we stood by a tree thirty yards off, they finally suspected
our presence and stopped to look at us. We withdrew for
forty yards or so, not wishing to have them charge and
666 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
force us to shoot in self-defence. Then we found the skull
of one of their dead kinsfolk; one of the party stopped to
pick it up and give it to one of the porters. We were talk-
ing and laughing; and all the time the two rhinos, their
ears cocked forward, looked toward us with solemn bewil-
derment. So off we strode, and left them still standing,
foolish and puzzled, among the sparse and withered trees,
in the dry landscape.
If they got our wind the rhinos usually made off at once;
but if they merely saw us they would stare at us and move
to and fro, their ears up and perhaps their tails cocked,
with dull curiosity. We frequently found cow-herons with
them, and once a party of black-legged egrets. The herons
perched on their heads and backs with entire indifference,
and the result was that the rhinos generally looked as if they
had been splashed with whitewash. Once, while walking
through rather tall grass, we saw some white objects moving
rapidly off in single file through the grass tops; and it took
a second glance before we realized that they were white
herons perched on the back of a rhino bull.
We have never known of a white rhino attacking man
or beast in wantonness; but one of the few white rhinos on
the South African game reserve, a bull, was charged, and
killed, by a stab behind the shoulder, by a solitary bull ele-
phant, a big tusker, which was also on the reserve.
The white rhino has been termed a slow breeder. Of
course such a huge animal cannot breed like a guinea-pig.
But our experience goes to show that it is for its size really
a rather rapid breeder, that the cows breed before they are
fully adult, and that they breed again before the calf they
already have has left them. Two of the cows which we
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 667
found accompanied by calves had not yet shed all their
milk teeth; and one cow, accompanied by a good-sized calf,
was nearly on the point of giving birth to another.
The white or square-mouthed rhinoceros is a long-
headed, tall-bodied animal with a flattened or truncate nose
and a wide, square mouth. The excessively long head dis-
tinguishes this species at once from all other living forms.
The ears are much longer and the feet larger than in the
black rhinoceros. One of the peculiarities of this species
is the prominent, rounded, fleshy hump upon the nape of the
neck just forward of the withers. This hump is purely a
muscular structure and receives no support from the dorsal
processes of the cervical vertebrae. With the exception of
three short folds the skin is smooth and lacks even such
shallow markings as the rib furrows which are so character-
istic of the black rhinoceros. The best marked of these
folds, and the only one which is permanent, is a transverse
fold on the foreleg encircling the limb just above the elbow.
When the head is held level with the back a prominent
transverse fold is formed on the nape just behind the ears.
This fold disappears when the head is lowered in feeding
and another longer transverse one is formed on the throat.
The young at birth do not difl^er from the adults in color
or skin structure and but slightly in proportions. The
changes which take place with age are chiefly the growth
of the horns and the lengthening of the head.
In size this species exceeds but slightly the big Indian
single-horned species and but little the black African species.
Measurements of the length and height of the Indian species
given by Lydekker * are scarcely inferior to authentic di-
mensions of the largest South African specimens. Measure-
ments of mounted skeletons of these two species show the
Indian very little less in size. The black rhinoceros of East
Africa stands several inches lower and measures less in
length of head. The superiority in size of the white rhi-
noceros over the other living species has been greatly ex-
aggerated. The utmost that can be said is that there is a
slight average superiority.
*" Great and Small Game of India, Burma and Tibet."
668 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
In size the sexes are very similar, the male exceeding the
female but little. The only appreciable secondary sexual
characters are found in the size of the horn bases, the nasal
bones which support them, and the general massiveness of
the skull. The base of the front horn in the male is always
greater than in the female, this dimension showing no rela-
tionship to the length of the structure. The width of the
nasal boss which supports the front horn is correspondingly
greater in the male. Male skulls are usually actually wider
than those of females and are always relatively so as well as
being longer. So marked are these sexual characters in
the skulls that they can be sexed with a fair amount of
certainty.
The species is normally two-horned, the front horn
greatly exceeding the rear one in size. The front horn is
situated on a prominent bony boss at the tip of the nasal
bones and is immediately followed by the rear horn which
is much compressed laterally and placed on the suture
between the nasal and frontal bones. The front horn is
squared in front where it partakes of the shape of the snout,
and is normally curved backward as in the black rhinoceros.
The usual length of this horn is two feet although occa-
sional specimens attain a length of five feet. The record
horn for the South African race is sixty-two and one-half
inches. Such enlarged horns are attained only by the fe-
males in which they project forward in advance of the snout.
The rear horn is usually low, sharply conical, and con-
siderably compressed. It seldom exceeds more than a few
inches in height and is occasionally wanting. , The rear
horn never approaches the front one in size as in the keitloa
variety of the black rhinoceros in which the two horns are
equal in size. The rear horn is so small that it is obviously
disappearing, the species showing a marked tendency to
become single-horned; but actual single-horned specimens
are rare.
The only parts of the body which show a growth of hair
are the terminal margins of the ears and the apical one-
fourth of the tail. The hair of the ears is quite soft and an
inch or so in length. The hair covering of the tail is stiff
and bristly, and confined to a streak along both edges of
the flattened tip. In the two male skins the hair covering
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 669
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670 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
these parts Is glossy black and quite profuse, but In the
female skins the covering is much thinner and decidedly
brownish In color. The young at birth are no more hairy
than the adults, possessing only the ear and tail fringes of
coarse hair.
The skins of the white rhinoceroses cannot under the
most lenient consideration be classed as white. They are,
however, distinctly lighter than those of the black species,
and may on this account be allowed to retain their popular
designation of white. The blackness seen In the mounted
specimens Is due to pigment put on by the taxidermists,
and such specimens do not represent the natural color of
the animal. Their true color is smoke-gray, as defined by
Ridgway, a color conspicuously lighter than the dark clove-
brown of their geographical ally, Diceros bicornis. The
four adult skins from the Lado Enclave show some varia-
tion, the color ranging from smoke-gray to broccoli-brown.
The two male skins are lighter than the female but the
color differences are not constant, the two female skins
varying more in color from each other than they do from
the mafe skins.
Measurements of an adult male in the flesh shot by
Colonel Roosevelt at Rhino Camp, Lado Enclave, are:
length of head and body along contour, ii feet 9 inches;
length of tail to end of vertebrae, 2 feet 5 inches; standing
height at shoulders, 5 feet 8 Inches; length of ear, 11 Inches;
length of hind foot (hock to tip of middle hoof), i foot 7
inches. Skull of the largest male: greatest length, 2 feet
9 inches; zygomatic width, i foot 3>^ Inches; length of
upper tooth row, 10 Inches; projection of occipital crests
above dorsal plane of skull, i^ inches. The largest-horned
specimen in the National Museum is a female shot by Ker-
mit Roosevelt. This horn measures 29^^ Inches in length
and exhibits the peculiar forward pitch which is not infre-
quently shown by specimens from South Africa. The pitch
forward In this case is extreme, the point coming in con-
tact with the ground In feeding, so that the point is worn
flat on Its outer face. No other Lado horn showing this
peculiarity of curvature has been seen. The longest horn
in Major Powell-Cotton's collection Is 36 inches in length,
and in shape curves backward in the normal way. This
MAP 37 DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE WHITE RHINOCEROS
1 Ceratotherium simum simum 2 Ceratotherium simum cottoni
671
672 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
is also from a female specimen and is the longest one which
has been examined. Ward records a horn 40>i+ inches in
length secured in the Bahr el Ghazal by Captain F. G.
Poole.
The specimens examined consist of the series collected
by the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction
of Colonel Roosevelt at Rhino Camp, Lado Enclave. The
precise geographical position of this spot is latitude 2° 55'
north, on the west bank of the Nile, some fifteen miles north
of the station of Wadelai. This material consists of four-
teen specimens: the complete skins and skeletons of two
adult males, two adult females, one calf, and one mature
foetus; the head skins and skulls of three adult females;
the skull of a male, and four weathered skulls found on
the veldt, two of which are undoubted males and two
females. Besides this material in the National Museum
the writers have examined specimens from South Africa
in the British, Paris, and Hamburg Museums as well as
Nile specimens in the Congo Museum at Brussels, and a
large series in the private museum of Major Powell-Cotton
at Quex Park, England.
CHAPTER XXII
THE COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA
Horse Family
Equidce
The living members of the Equidcs are distinguishable
from all other hoofed mammals by the single-toed charac-
ter of their feet. They represent the highest specialization
in foot structure of the odd-toed ungulates or perisso-
dactyles but are united by intermediate fossil forms to re-
mote five-toed ancestors of small size which lived during
the Lower Eocene in both Europe and North America.
Such ancient types showed little resemblance to the modern
horse, being diminutive, carnivore-like mammals the size of
a rabbit, and if they were not united by intermediate forms
their equine relationship would scarcely be suspected. The
family Equidce consists of horse-like genera having but a
single toe to each foot, the lateral toes being represented by
the splint-bones, which have lost all trace of false hoofs at
their tips. The forms having three toes comprise a dis-
tinct family of fossil horses intermediate between true
horses and the diminutive five-toed ones. The dental ap-
paratus of the modern horses also shows much specializa-
tion. It is especially fitted to withstand a great amount
of wear due to mastication. To serve this purpose all the
cheek-teeth have become very long-crowned ; the crowns at
their tips being broad and composed of alternate layers of
673
674 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
enamel, dentine, and cement, which form a perfect grinding
surface. The great length of the crown gives the teeth a long
period of wear. The horse is in this way fitted to masticate
tough herbage rapidly and thoroughly and is placed at very
little less disadvantage than the ruminant hoofed mammals
which have an accessory pouch to the stomach from which
the food is returned to the mouth and masticated at leisure.
The incisor teeth are well developed in both jaws and are
also very long-crowned and subject to a great amount of
wear. The pits or "cups" in the crowns of these teeth are
a peculiarity found only in the horse and its fossil allies.
In age they disappear, but they persist for a period of
eight or ten years, and by their relative size in the various
incisor teeth the age of a horse is commonly determined by
horse dealers. In addition to the incisor teeth, which
provide the horse with a formidable biting apparatus, the
males are furnished with well-developed canine teeth in
both jaws. The females lack the canines, which are only
represented occasionally by vestiges beneath the gums.
During the last geological period or Pleistocene age the
Equidce were a dominant type, and widely spread through
North and South America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa;
but to-day they are totally absent in a wild state from the
New World and occur only in a small part of the Old,
namely, in southern Asia and in the eastern half of the
African continent. The fossil species were quite numerous
and several distinct generic types were represented. At the
present time there exist a single or at most two generic
types, and some seven distinct species. Their extinction
in the New World is of such recent occurrence that it was
doubtless due to some insect-born infection akin to the
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 675
tsetse-fly diseases so prevalent among the big game of
Africa to-day and not to any change in the cHmate, flora,
or balance of large carnivorous animals which preyed upon
them.
Key to the Genera of Equidce
Head not enlarged; skull wider, the snout or rostral portion not greatly
lengthened; occipital portion of skull not produced
backward beyond the condyles; lambdoidal crests
narrow; coloration when striped having the dark
stripes much wider than the light ones and the hind
quarters crossed by diagonal or longitudinal stripes
Equus
Head somewhat enlarged and elongate or dolichocephalic; skull nar-
rower, the rostral portion lengthened and the occip-
ital or lambdoidal crests very wide and extending
well behind the condyles; dark and light stripes
numerous and equal in width over most of the body;
rump crossed by transverse stripes to below the hips
Dolichohippus
Horses, Asses, and Zebras
Equus
Equus Linnaeus, 1758, Systema Naturae, p. 73; type E. caballus, the domestic
horse.
The modern representatives of the genus Equus show
great range of coloration from the fully striped zebras
through the partially striped asses to the unicolored horse.
In body shape or in actual size there is comparatively little
range if we exclude the giant domestic breeds of horses
which have no standing in nature. The ears range from
the great length found in some asses to the short, narrow ear
of the horse and bonte-quagga. There is a progressive de-
velopment in the size of the tail tuft from the small terminal
tuft of the zebra to the complete tufted tail of the horse.
The skulls, however, show surprisingly slight differences in
shape or dentition and are scarcely distinguishable. The
horse is more distinct than the other species and may be
distinguished by its larger cheek-teeth in which the inner
676 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
fold or protocone of enamel Is enlarged. Notwithstanding
this similarity of structure, the various groups which are
recognized by distinct English names have been employed
as genera by some writers, who divide the genus up into
zebras {Hippotigris), asses {A sinus), and the horse {Eqmis),
on the basis of external differences. Unfortunately, when
we come to consider the fossil species such differences cannot
be employed, and we are at a loss to know whether in these
extinct species we are dealing with zebras, asses, or horses.
The fossil species first make their appearance in the Upper
Pliocene and the genus continues on down through the
Pleistocene to the present time. The former range covered
North America, Europe, Asia, and North and South Africa,
being absent only from South America. Recently the first
specimen of fossil horse has been recorded from South
Africa by Broom. It is based on some tooth remains from
Pleistocene deposits near Cape Town, which Indicate a
very large species apparently exceeding the horse In size.
The existing representatives occur in a small part of central
and southern Asia and Africa. In the latter continent they
extend from the northeastern portion southward along the
eastern half to the Cape region and southwest coast as far
north as Angola. The number of living representatives
does not exceed six or seven valid species, which are com-
prised in the horse, two zebras, and three or four species of
asses.
The Bonte-Quagga or Quagga Zebra
Equus quagga
Equus quagga Gmelin, 1788, Systema Naturae, p. 213.
The name quagga has been derived from the call of the
zebra, which consists of a short bark, kwa-ha, repeated sev-
eral times. The name came originally from the Hottentot
word quaha, through the Cape Dutch, who applied It first
to the true quagga and later distinguished the other or more
fully striped races as bonte-quaggas. The quagga has by
most recent writers been considered a distinct species from the
Burchell zebra and its northern races owing to the restriction
in the quagga of the stripes to the forward part of the body.
It is, however, less widely separated in coloration from the
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 677
typical Burchell zebra than the latter is from its more north-
ern fully striped races. There is a continuous progressive
change in coloration from the immediate vicinity of the
Cape or southern point of Africa, which was the habitat of
the extinct quagga, to typical burcheili, inhabiting the Orange
River district, and on through other striped forms in the
Transvaal to the fully striped races of southern Rhodesia or
Matabeleland. The typical Burchell zebra had only the
body striped, the legs being uniform whitish and the hind
quarters but weakly striped. The few specimens of the typi-
cal quagga which are now preserved in museums show con-
siderable variation in the extent of the striping, some in this
regard being striped on the hind quarters almost as distinctly
as true burcheili. The change from a partially striped animal
to a fully striped one takes place in the southern part of
the range of the species, or that portion south of the Zam-
besi River. North of the Zambesi River no additional
stripes or greater intensity of striping occurs, the races north
of this point showing only slight differences in body size or
color tone. Curiously enough, the most fully striped of all
the races, crazvshayi, inhabits the middle region of the
Zambesi, north of which races occur having a slightly
less number of stripes but no less distinctly striped. We
thus have in this zebra practically the whole range of its
color scheme exhibited in the southern third of its range,
while the northern two thirds show almost no variation.
What the real significance of this break in the progressive
color change is really due to is quite problematical. Two
theories suggest themselves: one that it is a climatic affair,
the country from the Zambesi River southward being in
the temperate zone and consequently showing a gradual
range of temperature which coincides with the gradual
color change, the country north of the Zambesi River
being tropical and of uniform climate; the other that there
is an important time element involved — South Africa having
long been the home of this particular species, the color
differences have come about slowly in that region, but the
zebra's extension northward to beyond the equator is of
such recent date that there has not elapsed time sufficient
for important color changes to take place such as are found
in the south.
678 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
In East Africa, north to the Northern Guaso Nyiro, the
most plentiful big animal next to the hartebeest was the
common zebra — not the very uncommon and narrowly
limited mountain zebra of South Africa, but the bonte-
quagga, which is found in a dozen different forms from the
Orange River to beyond the equator.
The zebra is eminently gregarious. Of course, an occa-
sional stallion is found by himself, usually an immature, a
weak, or an aged animal. But ordinarily zebras are found
in herds of from a dozen to a couple of hundred ; and, more-
over, half the time there are other animals mixed in with
these herds— hartebeests, wildebeests, oryxes, elands, gazelles,
or ostriches. Each herd is usually under the leadership of
a master stallion.
Zebras are vicious fighters. Against a lion they make
no fight at all, and against man they are only dangerous in
the sense that a bull moose or wapiti is dangerous; that is,
they will bite viciously if approached when wounded ; and on
rare occasions when crippled and brought to a standstill,
but not wholly disabled, they will charge at the hunter from
a distance of several rods. We, personally, have never
known one do more than skin its teeth at us as we ap-
proached it when on the ground, or perhaps as we galloped
through a herd after some more desirable game; but Mr.
Stewart Edward White was regularly charged. It would be
interesting to know whether zebras can stand off wild
hounds — those inveterate enemies of other game. We
once saw a zebra make a race at a wild hound which
had trotted near by, and drive it off, although the pied
hunter did not seem much frightened; and Loring saw
a zebra standing with two wild hounds near by to which it
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 679
paid not the slightest attention. But it is impossible to
generalize from such instances; often game animals seem to
recognize when beasts of prey are not after them, and then
betray a curious indifference to the otherwise dreaded pres-
ence. We have seen zebras trot a few rods out of the path
of a lion and then turn to gaze at him as he walked by.
The chief fighting is done by the stallions among themselves.
When at liberty the beaten party can generally escape; but
if a herd is captured and left overnight in a corral, by
morning the weaker males are sure to have been frightfully
savaged, and some of them killed. The jaws are very pow-
erful and inflict a merciless bite. In captivity the animals
must be carefully handled, as they sometimes grow very
vicious.
Zebras are noisy, much more so than any antelope.
Their barking cry — qua-ha, or ba-ha — sounds not unlike
that of a dog when heard at a distance; watching from
behind a bush we have seen the stallions canter close by
with ears forward and mouths open as they uttered this
cry. They often utter it when leaving a pool after drinking,
or when their alarm or curiosity is excited ; and often for no
reason as far as we could discern.
Game differ wonderfully in tameness and shyness, both
individually and locally; and, moreover, individuals will
be shy at one time, and, for no apparent reason, tame at
another. On the whole, however, the common zebra is
among the tamest of African game. It is, moreover, much
influenced by curiosity. Again and again herds have stood
watching us from different sides, even down wind, as we
sat under a tree eating lunch or resting. Zebras are quick
to catch motion, but will feed right up to a man lying
680 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
motionless, especially if he is under or beside even the small-
est and most scantily leaved bush. Their sense of smell is
keen, as with all game.
They are grass-eaters, and are emphatically animals of
the open plains, seeming to be indifferent as to whether
these are entirely bare of trees or are thinly dotted with
occasional thorny acacias. We never saw them in anything
resembling thick cover, not even in such cover as that to
which their companions, the hartebeests, sometimes pene-
trated; but in places they seemed to like the plains over
which acacias were scattered, and would stand or rest at mid-
day in their shade. As with other game, it was astonish-
ing to see how they abounded, and how fat they became, in
dry, open country, where water was scarce and the pastur-
age brown and withered. As long as they could reach water
once in twenty-four hours, and find abundant pasturage of
the kind they liked — no matter how dry — within eight or
ten miles of the water, they throve. In such a district they
lived throughout the year, seeming to migrate much less
freely than the wildebeest and some other game — in fact,
the only migrations we heard of were those occurring when
they had to leave a given district because the water and
herbage failed outright. On the Athi and Kapiti Plains we
were informed by the settlers that the zebras stayed all
the time, with very slight shifts of a few miles one way or the
other, as the different scries of pools dried or filled. In the
Sotik we were informed that in times of drought the zebra
and almost all the other game were obliged to abandon
extensive regions in which they swarmed after the rains.
Like so many big animals, zebras are not favored by a
rank and luxurious plant growth. We never saw them in
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 681
the forests or thick, wet bush. There were none on the cold,
well-watered slopes of Kenia, with their thick growth of
bush grass. They were not abundant in any of the regions
fitted for a thick, agricultural population. The country
which they most affected was like our own Western ranch
country: the grass grew thick and fairly high on it for a
short period after the rains, but during most of the time
it was dry, and the grass withered and short; the trees were
acacias or euphorbias, or on the lower grounds palms.
Few things are more interesting or puzzling to the natu-
ralist in East Africa than the distribution of the various big
animals. The limits of the range of many species seem in
our eyes purely arbitrary, uninfluenced by any physical
barriers; doubtless there is an explanation, but it has not
yet been discovered. In most places the big and the small
gazelles are found in abundance on the same plains, but,
although there seems no change in the country, except that
the altitude is lower, the small gazelles are not found north-
ward along the Northern Guaso Nyiro, where one form of
the big gazelle abounds. The wildebeest abounds in the
Sotik and on the Athi and Kapiti Plains, but is not found
along the Northern Guaso Nyiro. The hartebeests are the
most abundant big mammals throughout their range; one
species, the Coke, is the commonest game of the Sotik and
the Athi, another, the Jackson, the commonest game in the
'Nzoia country, neither intruding on the range of the other,
and both being absent from the Northern Guaso Nyiro,
where the oryx is common; and in this case the explana-
tion of altitude, which can be given as regards the small
gazelle, does not apply, for hartebeests are found on the
Nile where the altitude is the same as that of the Northern
682 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Guaso Nyiro. But the common zebra covers the range of
all these animals in East Africa. It is abundant in the
Sotik and on the Athi and Kapiti Plains, although inferior
in number to the Coke hartebeest, with which it there
associates together with the wildebeest and big and little
gazelles; but the causes, whatever they are, which so sharply
limit the range of the Coke hartebeest and wildebeest do
not affect the zebra, which is also plentiful along the North-
ern Guaso Nyiro in company with the oryx and the big
Grevy zebra. On the other hand, while the zebra's range
overlaps that of the big hartebeests, the latter extend far
to the westward of the regions in which the zebras are
found; we found no zebras in the brush-covered and fairly
well wooded and watered districts of Uganda in which
hartebeests were not uncommon, and we saw none along
the upper White Nile in regions in which hartebeests were
plentiful and which were seemingly in their essential char-
acteristics like the Sotik and the Athi, but they are known
to occur locally in these regions. Moreover, while the
hartebeests have become differentiated into sharply de-
fined and totally distinct species, the common zebra ex-
tends over a range which includes several of these harte-
beest species, without itself undergoing anything like the
same differentiation; in fact, the different varieties of the
common zebra grade into one another, from the southern
form with white legs to the more richly colored northern
form with fully striped legs.
Where water is plentiful and the pasturage good a herd
of zebra will contentedly exist within an area of a dozen
miles square, or less. In the absence of hunters such a herd
normally leads an uneventful life, the placidity of which is
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 683
disturbed only by the ravages of the Hon. Most of the
zebra's existence is spent in eating, and most of the remain-
der in sleeping or in drowsy rest. If undisturbed and un-
alarmed the herds, after drinking, graze off toward their
favorite feeding grounds, or, if the grass is poor in the inter-
vening country, walk or canter toward them, strung out in
Indian file. After eating their temporary fill of grass they
rest for three or four hours, sometimes lying down, more
often standing. Most often they maj^ be found resting right
in the open plain; but if a clump of thorn-trees is handy
they may stand or lie in the slight shade of their thinly
leaved branches. After resting the herd rises and slowly
grazes back to the water-hole or river. They may drink
only once a day, but they are thirsty animals and prefer
to visit the water at least twice every twenty-four hours.
We have seen them drink in the morning and afternoon
and late evening; they also drink at night. Noon is their
favorite hour for rest, but they are by no means regular,
and they sometimes rest at night, although we believe that
they generally spend the night feeding, and are then more
alert than in the daytime.
Night is the lion's hunting season, and the sight or
smell of him or even the suspicion of him at that time
throws the animals he hunts into a frenzy of terror.
Under the influence of these ever-recurring panics, the
zebras stampede in a mad rush. This habit makes them
obnoxious to the settlers, for they are powerful animals
with thick skins, and in such a stampede they go right
through any wire fence; while they are of no value to
the settlers except for their hides, as their flesh is not
good eating from the white man's standpoint, although
684 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
most of the natives devour it greedily. During the mo-
ments of panic the zebra's terror is Hke the horrible fear felt
in a nightmare, and under its influence the animal will rush
anywhere; but as with other wild beasts the feeling is as
short-lived as it is intense. If one of their number has been
killed the herd may wander about for a few minutes whinny-
ing; but after these few minutes they settle down to their
ordinary life business, and feed, or rest, or make love, or
fight as before. Night is a time of frequent panic, but
during the day there is little fear of present molestation,
and nothing either of remembrance of past or anticipation
of future molestation. In approaching the drinking-places
there is usually much watchfulness and suspicion, the ad-
vance being made by fits and starts, with halts and sudden
backward wheels; for, although the lion generally kills them
on the open plain, he also often lies in wait for them by
some much-frequented pool.
We have already discussed the alleged " protective color-
ation" of big game. As regards the game of the open plains
protective coloration plays practically no part; and as re-
gards the zebra it plays absolutely no part whatever. Under
the glaring African sun, and in the African landscape, any
animal, of any color or shape, is sometimes hard to see — a
rhino, buffalo, giraffe, or zebra, or even an elephant; and
there are exceptional circumstances under which any con-
ceivable color or coloration scheme will merge the wearer
with the surroundings. But the game animals of the East
African plains do not rely on their coloration for their pro-
tection; they are colored in all kinds of ways, and they are
neither helped nor hurt by their coloration, whether it is con-
cealing or revealing. The zebra has an advertising colora-
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 685
tion; that is, Its coloration reveals it far more often than it
conceals it. It is less conspicuous than the wildebeest,
sable, or topi; about as conspicuous as the hartebeest; and
much more conspicuous than the eland, oryx, roan, Grant
gazelle, or Thomson gazelle. When coming to water it is,
of course, in motion, never attempts to hide or slink, and is
always and under all circumstances conspicuous to every
beast of prey in the neighborhood. After drinking it imme-
diately returns to the open country, where it can be seen
at once even by dull eyes. When standing or lying down
under acacia-trees at noon it shows up as above indicated
— more conspicuously than an eland or oryx, less so than a
wildebeest. The stripes, when they can be seen at all, have
an advertising effect; this is especially true of the broad
rump stripes which advertise the animal at a distance at
which the big Grevy zebra seems gray like an ass. At a
distance the zebra is apt to look white or black, according
as the sun strikes it, and then gray. Even while standing
still under a thorn-tree, in the puzzling lights and shadows
which tend to conceal any animal of any color, the zebra
frequently whisks its tail, which at once attracts attention.
All game animals with long tails are continually twitching
or swinging them, and this motion catches the eye at once,
even at a distance at which the coloration would neither con-
ceal nor reveal the wearer. The only time we ever saw
zebras helped by any concealing quality of their coloration
was once when we found a few standing in partially burnt
grass; the infrequent black or yellow stalks harmonized well
with their coats, and made it difficult to see them.
At nightfall all animals become hard to see, of course;
and in thick darkness all are alike invisible. In dusk, in
686 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
moonlight, and on very clear, moonless nights, we found that
grayish, countershaded animals like domestic asses, and
eland and oryx, were most difficult to see. Zebras were
much more clearly visible; they seemed whitish; if close up
their stripes could be made out. Mr. Selous has recorded
an interesting observation to this effect: he found that even
the Grevy zebra, which is less conspicuously colored than
the common kind, showed up at night more plainly than
eland, oryx, or koodoo, and that in the moonlight the
stripes were very distinct, making the animal readily visible.
On the Athi and Kapiti Plains ticks swarmed, and they
clustered in masses around the eyes of the zebras and in the
groin, and wherever there was bare skin. Yet, in spite of
the abundance of these loathsome creatures, the zebras were
fat and in high condition. Ticks were much less plentiful
both in the Sotik and along the Northern Guaso Nyiro.
Wherever they teemed, as they did on the Kapiti Plains,
it was hard to understand how the game supported their
presence. But the zebra and antelope were just as fat there
as elsewhere. Evidently the ticks did not really trouble
them, whereas the biting flies bothered them greatly.
All animals which live in herds tend to develop a herd
leader. This herd leader sometimes may, and sometimes
may not, be the master male. Thus in a herd of wapiti,
containing a heavy master bull, we have seen an old cow
assume complete leadership, watching while the herd was
at rest and leading the others whenever the herd was in
motion. We also once saw a Tommy doe, which was asso-
ciating with four Grant gazelles, take complete charge of
the whole party, its big associates following it submissively
wherever it led. It seemed as if in the zebra herds the
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 687
master stallion generally acted as leader, when there was
any leader. He would round up the mares and drive them
whither he wished; and he would trot a few paces toward
any strange object, leaving the herd behind and watching
intently, with ears pricked forward. We have never been
able to watch a herd of wild game close enough to tell
whether the individuals all fall into an ordered system of
precedence, as ranch cattle do, where gradually each steer,
bull, or cow seems to accept its exact place with reference
to its fellows.
Key to the Races of quagga
Dark stripes blackish or deep seal-brown; light stripes (ground-color)
cream color or whitish without ochraceous suffusion
Body size smaller, skull length usually less than 21 inches; light
stripes whitish granti
Body size large, skull length usually greater than 21 inches; light
stripes cream color bohmi
Dark stripes, seal-brown or bistre; light stripes darker than cream
color, usually pale ochraceous-buff. Body size small,
the skull length less than 20 inches cuninghamei
Highland Quagga Zebra
Equus quagga granti
Native Names: Masai, ol-oitigo; Kikamba, nthai; Kikuyu, njagi; Acholi,
lagware ; Luganda, entulege.
Equus burchelli granti DeWinton, 1896, Ann. ^ Mag. Hist., XVII, p. 319.
Range. — The highlands of British East Africa west-
ward through Uganda to the Edward Nyanza and north-
ward on the east side of the Nile as far as the Mongolia
district and the headwaters of the Sobat River northwest
of Lake Rudolf, east to the eastern edge of the highland
plateau down to an altitude of three thousand feet in Brit-
ish East Africa, and north as far as the south bank of the
Tana River; southern limits of range in German East
Africa unknown.
688 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The highland quagga of British East Africa was described
as a distinct race in 1896 by DeWinton, from specimens col-
lected near the Thika River by Doctor J. W. Gregory, who
has given us an account of his journey in *'The Great Rift
Valley." In the original description, which is very brief,
DeWinton makes no allusion to his use of Grant's name for
this race. He has named the race, without doubt, for Colonel
Grant of the Speke and Grant expedition, who mentions
the zebra in his notes in the natural history account of the
expedition, published in 1872, where he calls attention to
the color differences between this race and the typical
Burchell zebra of South Africa. Sportsmen, however,
seem to be very uncertain as to the distinctness of this
race from those found south of the Zambesi River and often
refer to the East African race as "Chapman's." They have,
no doubt, been led to this course by the occasional presence
of faint shadow stripes in specimens which in this respect
resemble the Chapman zebra. Although shadow stripes
are occasionally present on the hind quarters in specimens
from British East Africa, the absence of such stripes is much
more common and must be accepted as one of the char-
acters of the highland race known to naturalists as Equus
quagga granti. Other characters for the race in compari-
son with South African forms are the great width of the
dark stripes on the hind quarters, the whiteness of the light
stripes, and the fully striped character of the legs. The
stripes are especially numerous on the pasterns above the
hoofs, where they unite to form a wide black band covering
nearly the whole pastern region. The quagga zebra, com-
monly known as the Burchell zebra, covers a great expanse
of territory in East Africa, as well as a great altitudinal
range, and is consequently subject to great diversity of
climatic conditions. Nevertheless, they show almost no
color changes which agree with difference in environment.
This is in marked contrast to their color behavior in South
Africa as well as to the color behavior of the Grant gazelle,
giraffe, and a host of other species with which they are in-
timately associated in East Africa and which exhibit well-
marked geographical differences in color over the same
area. The zebra affords us a striking example of how
independently species react to environment and how ob-
HIGHLAND QUAGGA ZEBRA; MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Loita Plains
nil. Ill \\ii ijr\(,(;A zi.uRA, MALI-:
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Loita Plains
HIGHLAND QUAGGA ZEBRA, MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt, Loita Plains
SHOWING VARIATIONS IN DORSAL COLOR PATTERNS OF HIGHLAND
QUAGGA ZEBRA
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 689
viously each is a "law unto itself." Not only does the
coloration of the quagga zebras emphasize this point, but
it goes much further toward breaking down our general
theories by responding very diversely in color changes over
the northern and southern parts of its range, or, in other
words, the changes we find in effect in one part of the range
cannot be used as a clew to what may be expected to occur
over other parts of the range.
A freak or abnormally colored specimen of the highland
quagga zebra has been collected near Lake Nakuru, British
East Africa, by G. H. Goldfinch and described recently as
a new race, goldfi7ichi, by Ridgway. This specimen has a
peculiar large, irregular white blotch across the middle of
the back which is divided on the midline by the dark dorsal
stripe. Two other similar specimens have been seen at the
same spot which are, without doubt, blood relatives of the
type. Specimens of this sort have no standing in nature
as a race, but merely represent abnormal individuals.
Colonel Delme-Radcliffe records, in the proceedings of the
Zoological Society of London for 1905, a zebra observed by
him near Rushenyi, Uganda, which was much more ex-
tensively white, the stripes being evident only on the neck
and the hind quarters, the rest of the body being quite
albinistic. This specimen was associated with a large
herd of normally colored zebras. An albino zebra is also
recorded by Oscar Neumann from Manyara Lake in the
Rift Valley of German East Africa. Albinism has also
been observed by Percival among Grevy zebra in the vicin-
ity of the Lorian swamp.
The highland quagga is distinguishable from the coast
and the northern desert forms by only average characters
or slight differences. From bohmi, the race occupying the
low coast lands, it is distinguishable by the smaller body
size, the somewhat narrower stripes on the hind quarters,
and by the whiter color of the light stripes which seldom
show any buffy suffusion. The Northern Guaso Nyiro
desert race, ctminghamei, differs from granti by smaller
body size much as granti does from bohmi but has better
marked color differences, the dark stripes being quite brown-
ish, bistre or seal-brown, instead of black. The average
length of male skulls in granti is 20 inches as against 19
690 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
inches in cuninghamei and 21 inches in bohmi. The great-
est width of the obhque stripes on the hind quarters on granti
is 3 inches, while in cuninghafnei their width is only 2^
inches, but in bohmi they are greatest of all, being 31^ inches.
The amount of actual color variation is slight but the color
pattern is extremely variable in certain parts, especially in
the region of the dorsal stripe and on the pasterns, that is,
the part of the leg immediately above the hoof. Usually the
dorsal stripe is bordered for its whole length by a white
stripe so that the lateral stripes do not unite with it. But
there is every intermediate condition from such an un-
broken dorsal stripe to one which unites with practically
all of the transverse and oblique stripes on the loins and
rump. The pastern region varies, independent of age or
sex, from a fully striped condition, in which the margin of
the hoof is marked by a broad whitish border, to a condi-
tion in which the lower half of the pastern is solid black
and the light band immediately above the hoof wholly
absent. There appears to be a fairly well-marked sexual
color difference in the nose, which in the males is black
only at the tip about the nostrils and the lips and bright
tan posteriorly between the nostrils and the tips of the
narrow forehead stripes. This area in the females is usually
black like the nostril area, the whole snout being black.
Shadow stripes occur on but a very small per cent of the
specimens. In a series of fourteen males from the Loita
Plains only two show shadow stripes, and in these they are
confined to faint traces on the hind quarters. One female
in a series of eight from the same locality shows shadow
stripes similar in distinctness and position. The shadow
stripes are individual affairs and are no more prevalent in
the young than in adults, as witnessed in a series of three
newly born young in which indications of shadow stripes
are present in only one of the specimens. The lesser width
of the stripes on the hind quarters, which is one of the
characters of the highland form, shows less variation than
the same dimension in the dorsal or the neck stripes. The
oblique stripes on the hind quarters vary in different indi-
viduals in greatest width from 2}^ to 3>? inches, the dorsal
stripe from 2)4 to 5>^ inches, and the broadest neck stripe
from 2^ to 4 inches. One of the distinctive features of this
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 691
zebra over crazvshayi of South Africa is the lesser number
and broader character of the transverse stripes on the
middle of the body between the shoulder stripe and the first
oblique stripe. They number five in all the specimens,
except two in which they are reduced to four. In crazvshayi
they number six or more and are correspondingly narrower.
The color of the dark stripes is black in all the adult speci-
mens, but in the immature ones the stripes are usually less
blackish, being seal-brown or, in very young animals, russet-
brown. The light stripes or the ground-color are usually
quite whitish or cream color. In some individuals there is
occasionally a buff intermixture, but the immature animals
and the very young are usually quite as whitish as the
adults. The ears lose their dark markings to some extent
in age. The dark tip is, however, never absent, but it is
greatly reduced in old age when the ear becomes almost
completely white in appearance. The hair coat is shortest
in adults and longest in the young. In the nursing young
it is usually quite woolly. In very old adults the mane,
which in adults is usually some 5 or 6 inches long, becomes
worn down to a thin fringe only i or 2 inches long, and so
thin that the white stripes which are present in the perfect
condition have been eliminated by wear, leaving only black.
Specimens of this sort from the Uasin Gishu Plateau have
been mentioned by Lydekker as perhaps representing a
distinct race owing to their maneless condition. They are,
however, only aged males in which the mane is normally
greatly reduced. Female zebras do not, however, share
in this mane reduction but retain well-developed manes
throughout their lives. The tail tuft seems to be a more
constant affair and has usually a length of 17 inches beyond
the end of the tail vertebrae. It varies, however, from 15
to 19 inches in length but appears not to show any decrease
in age like the mane.
The size variation in this race is really considerable if
we take as a basis the dimensions of skulls which offer in
this respect the most reliable data. The length of the skull
in males varies from 19X inches to 2i>^ inches, which gives
an actual variation of zyi inches. In the females the skull
length varies from i8>^ inches to 20^ inches and shows an
actual variation of 2 inches, which is practically the same
692 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
as in the males. These figures are based on the measure-
ments of some fifty specimens of adults in the National
Museum. The skulls of females average an inch less in
actual length than those of males, but in the living animals
the two sexes appear quite indistinguishable in size, and
flesh measurements show them to be very nearly equal.
The largest-skulled male zebra in the series at the National
Museum is one having a length of 2i>^ inches, shot by
Colonel Roosevelt on the Loita Plains. This one measured,
in the flesh: head and body, 87 inches; tail, 16 inches;
hind foot, 22 inches; ear, 8 inches. A very large female
from the Kapiti Plains nearly equals these dimensions in the
flesh, the chief differences being in the length of the hind
foot, which is Y^ of an inch less than in the male. The tail
of this specimen is somewhat longer than that of the male,
being 18 inches, which is the usual tail length of the race.
At the National Museum a large series of skins and skulls
have been examined from the Kapiti, Athi, and Loita Plains,
Lakes Naivasha and Baringo, Laikipia and Uasin Gishu
Plateaux. Others have been examined in the British
Museum from the Rift Valley of British East Africa and
the Athi Plains.
The highland quagga zebra occurs wide-spread through-
out British and German East Africa, except in the low
coast country and in the northern deserts, where it is repre-
sented by other races. In Uganda, however, it is much
less abundant, owing to the growths of tall elephant-grass
which cover much of the plains country and make the
region unsuitable for open-plains game such as zebras. In
places where open plains of short grass are to be found the
zebra is found in small numbers. They occur in such dis-
tricts near the Maanja River west of Kampala, and on the
German border in the highlands of Ankole. Northward
from Mount Elgon they are found over the highlands as
far as the Soudan station of Mongolia where they reach
their extreme northern limit in the immediate vicinity of
the Nile, which stands as a barrier to their westward ex-
tension. On the headwaters of the Sobat River they occur
somewhat farther northeast, and here they reach their ex-
treme northern limit. In this region they have been re-
ported by but one sportsman, William N. McMillan, who
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 693
met with zebra in the plateau region of the Boma country
at the head of the Kaia River, a tributary of the Sobat.
Some distance east of this region, in this extreme northeast
corner of their range, they meet the Abyssinian form of the
quagga, jollce, in the valley of the Omo River.
Kilimanjaro Quagga Zebra
Equus quagga bohmi
Native Names: Swahili, punda milia; Duruma, /orrw.
Equus bohmi Matschie, 1892, Sitz.-Ber. Nat. Freu., Berlin, p. 131.
Range. — Lowlands of the coast drainage from three
thousand feet to sea-level, north in British East Africa as
far as the south bank of the Tana River, and inland to the
limits of the desert nyika zone; limits of range southward
in German East Africa unknown.
The zebra is known to the Swahili as punda milia, or
striped donkey, and this name has been carried through the
length and breadth of East Africa by the Swahili porters.
The name is being constantly impressed on the minds of
sportsmen by the insistent porter, whose stomach is always
demanding zebra meat. Punda milia has thus become as
familiar a term for the zebra to the European traveller in
East Africa as quagga is to his cousins in South Africa.
The coast race of the quagga zebra was described by Mat-
schie in 1892 from a skin collected by Herr Kuhnert on the
Pangani River south of Kilimanjaro and partly from a
painting by Richard Bohm for whom the species was named.
The original skin is now in the Berlin Museum, where it
has been examined by Heller. It is a flat skin lacking the
head and the feet. Faint shadow stripes occur between
the broad stripes on the hind quarters but they are not
well marked. Undue emphasis has been placed on the
presence of shadow stripes in this race owing to their presence
in the type, but they are really a variable feature and are
of no racial significance. The type happens to be so marked,
but specimens from Kilimanjaro lack the shadow stripes
in at least fifty per cent of the individuals, and we have no
doubt that the actual occurrence of shadow stripes will be
found, upon the examination of a larger number of skins, to
be a very much less per cent. A mounted specimen from
694 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Kilimanjaro in the British Museum is without indications
of shadow stripes. There is in the National Museum a single
old male specimen representing this race, collected by the
Rainey expedition at Mtoto Andei Station in the desert
nyika zone. This specimen Is decidedly larger than any
of the highland race, has a larger skull, broader stripes on
the quarters, and more buffy ground-color, but is without
any trace of shadow stripes. It Is evident from this speci-
men that the coast race is a larger form having a somewhat
more buffy tinge to the light stripes. Owing to the aged
character of this specimen the mane on the nape Is reduced
to a thin line of short black hair an Inch in length. The
nose has the tan blotch between the nostrils and the tips
of the forehead stripes well marked as in the males of
granti. The dark stripes are also deep black, as in granti,
and are quite the same In arrangement. The width of the
broadest stripes on the hind quarters is somewhat greater,
being 3^ inches. The flesh measurements of this specimen
were: head and body, 91 inches; tail, 18 inches; hind foot,
22 Inches; ear, yyi Inches. The greatest length of the skull
is 22 inches.
The coast race is found In well-watered districts through-
out the coast plain and the desert bush country. On the
lower slopes or plains of Kilimanjaro it is especially abun-
dant. In the thorn scrub of the desert nyika they are only
found locally in the vicinity of a permanent water supply.
Herds have been seen near Mtoto Andei Station and also
near the coast at Majl ya Chumvi. They have also been
reported on the lower Tana River and the lower Sabaki
River.
Samburu Quagga Zebra
Equus quagga cuninghamei
Equus quagga cuninghamei Heller, 1914, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No.
22, p. 3.
Range. — Desert drainage area of the Northern Guaso
Nylro from the eastern base of the Laiklpia Escarpment
eastward to the Lorian swamp, south as far as the north
bank of the Tana River and north at least as far as the
Lorogi Mountains; northern and eastern limits of range
unknown.
MAP 38 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE QUAGGA ZEBRA
1 Equus quagga granti
3 Equus quagga cuninghamei
2 Equus quagga bohmi
4 Equus quagga jolla
695
696 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The occurrence of the quagga zebra in the Northern
Guaso Nyiro district has been reported by nearly every
traveller who has visited the district, and the association of
the quagga and the Grevy together in the same herds has
often been commented upon. It is, however, not alone in
this region that such association occurs, for the two types
of zebra continue together northward over the desert area
to their northern limits in Abyssinia. The quagga zebra
inhabiting the Northern Guaso Nyiro district may be dis-
tinguished by lighter coloration and smaller body size from
the highland quagga of East Africa and Uganda and has
recently been named for R. J. Cuninghame, the well-known
safari leader of British East Africa.
The race is distinguishable from granti by its darker
ground-color as represented by the light stripes which are
pale ochraceous-buff and the lighter color of its dark stripes
which are bistre-brown instead of black. The skull differs
from that of granti by the shortness of the rostral portion
and the narrowness of the diastema between the cheek-
teeth and the incisors. The skull averages smaller in length
with narrower palatal width and wider lambdoidal crest
than in granti. From bohmi, of the Kilimanjaro district, it
differs in color the same way as from gra7iti, but is further
distinguishable by its much smaller body size.
The ground-color as represented by the light stripes is
pale ochraceous-buff and shows considerable contrast to the
white belly and inner surface of the hind quarters. The
dark stripes are uniform bistre-brown on the body but
darker somewhat on the head, where they become seal-
brown in conformity with the seal-brown nose patch. The
legs below the knees and hocks are marked by lighter stripes
than the body, being snuff-brown and fully striped to the
hoofs. The tail tuft is black with the exception of the
mixture of a few white hairs in the upper part. The ears
are cream-white, marked on the back at the tip by a broad
area of bistre-brown and another brown area near the base.
The mane is well developed, the hair having a length of 6
inches, with an extent from the crown of the head to the
shoulders, and is striped pale buff and seal-brown in con-
formity with the stripes of the neck. The body stripes
are arranged quite as in granti or hofwii, but there is no in-
COMMON ZEBRA OR BONTE-QUAGGA 697
dication of shadow stripes anywhere. The widest stripes
are the obHque ones crossing the hind quarters, which have
a width of 2^4 inches at their widest part. The body is
crossed behind the shoulders from the last neck stripe to
the first oblique stripe by four transverse stripes, which
completely encircle the body and join the longitudinal ven-
tral stripe. The neck is crossed by nine transverse stripes,
the anterior of which are narrow and a few of the posterior
very wide. The leg stripes are broken on the inner side on
the upper part of the legs, but below the knees and the
hocks they completely encircle the legs, and on the lower
part of the pasterns, immediately above the hoof, they
usually become fused into a solid dark band.
There is in addition to the type skin at the National
Museum another skin of the same age taken at the same
time. This latter specimen is quite identical in color with
the type. Specimens of granti of the same age from the
Athi Plains differ from the type by their whitish ground-
color and dark stripes which are seal-brown in color. The
stripes of the old adults of cuninghamei, however, as observed
in the live specimens in the field, are somewhat darker than
the type but are never deep black as in granti. The lighter
color of the dark stripes is no doubt due to the arid condi-
tions and intense heat and sunlight to which the Northern
Guaso Nyiro race is subject. Ciininghamei is a desert race
occupying the Northern Guaso Nyiro watershed from its
formation by the Guaso Narok and Guaso Nyuki Rivers
eastward to its termination in the Lorian swamp. North-
ward the race reaches at least as far as the northern slopes
of the Lorogi Mountains. The quagga zebras occurring
along the east shore of Lake Rudolf may be jollcz, the
Abyssinian race, which was described by Camerano from
the Rift Valley of central Abyssinia.
A fully adult male from Archer's Post, Northern Guaso
Nyiro River, had the following flesh measurements: head
and body, 75 inches; tail, 18 inches; hind foot, 20 inches;
ear, 6^^ inches. These flesh measurement are considerably
less than adult males of the highland quagga.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE GREVY ZEBRA
Dolichohippus
Dolichohippus Heller, 191 2, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 8, p. i; type
D. grevyi.
The Striped horses, or zebras, have been associated
by some naturaHsts in a genus Hippotigris, a name by
which they were known to the ancient Romans. Be-
yond their striped coats, however, they have no other
common character separating them from other existing
Equidcs. This assemblage illustrates well the popular idea
that all the striped horses are closely related. As a matter
of fact, they differ more among themselves than they do
from either asses or the domestic horse. In this connec-
tion it may be well to call attention to the probability of
many of the fossil horses having had striped coats and their
probable close relationship with some of the African zebras
rather than the horse. One, at least, of the living striped
horses we believe deserves generic rank. The Grevy zebra
stands out in shape of skull and proportions of head and
body further from the other zebras and asses than does the
horse, which is commonly regarded as the most highly
specialized member. Considering the large number of
fossil species, it is of some advantage to discriminate as
finely as possible between the few existing species so as to
show their probable relationships to such forms by means
of distinct generic names. The enlargement of the head in
G98
THE GREVY ZEBRA 699
Dolichohippus is decidedly great. The head in length is quite
equal to that of a large draught-horse, an animal having
twice the bulk of a Grevy zebra. The lengthening of the
skull is due to the production forward of the rostral portion
or the part in front of the grinding-teeth, which gives the
skull a long diastema or break between the grinding-teeth
and the incisors, and also gives the skull a long nasal cavity.
The most distinctive feature of the skull is the great width
of the occipital crests and their production backward be-
yond the occipital condyles. The cheek-teeth are better
developed than in the quagga, being larger in proportion.
In general shape and size the skull of Dolichohippus re-
sembles closely that of horses of Arabian stock, but is dis-
tinguishable by the broader occipital crests. The skull of
the wild horse, Equus prevalski, is shorter and more like
that of the ass and differs more from the long, narrow skull
of Dolichohippus than do some domestic races. By some
recent writers the Grevy zebra has been considered the
least specialized of the living Equidce^ and it has been there-
fore assumed that its coloration may be taken as represent-
ing that of the ancestral stock. Such a conclusion, however,
does not agree well with the extremely long-headed nature
of this zebra and the somewhat higher specialization of its
dental apparatus. It has been shown by paleontologists
that the lengthening of the head in the horse has been a
progressive affair which has gone on simultaneously with
the gradual elongation of the teeth and the complication of
their folds. In both of these characters the Grevy zebra
is slightly more advanced than any of the other living horse-
like ungulates. Its coloration is distinctive but nearer,
perhaps, that of the mountain zebra, E. zebra, which shows
700 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
on the rump the beginning of the gridiron or transverse
pattern of stripes which in the Grevy are lengthened out
and extend below the hips.
Dolichohippus is confined to the low desert area of
northern British East Africa and southeastern Abyssinia.
The range is so limited and uniform in climatic conditions
that but a single species, grevyi, is recognizable.
Grew Zebra
Dolichohippus grevyi
Native Names: Swahill, kangani: Samburru, kanga.
Equus grevyi Oustalet, 1882, La Nature, X, p. 12, figs. 2.
Range. — From the Northern Guaso Nyiro drainage and
the north bank of the Tana River northward to Lake Zwai
in Abyssinia, westward to the eastern shore of Lake Rudolf
and the Omo River, and east to the limits of Abyssinia, but
not known to occur actually within British Somaliland.
The kings of Abyssinia have from the very earliest
times sent as gifts from time to time living specimens of
the Grevy zebra to rulers of friendly European nations.
This custom early introduced the zebra to European civiliza-
tion. The zebra shown in the Roman amphitheatre is sup-
posed to have been this species and to be the one referred
to by the ancients as Hippotigris. Menelik, the late ruler
of Abyssinia, sent several specimens to various heads of
government in Europe and America. One of these sent to
President Grevy, of France, was described by Oustalet in
1882 and named for the chief executive. Although the
Grevy was without doubt the first species of zebra to
be known to Europe, it remained unknown, or rather un-
named, until described in 1882. Linnaeus, who founded
our modern system of binomial nomenclature, mentioned
in 1758 only the mountain zebra, to which he gave the
specific name zebra, a name virtually applicable primarily
to the present species. The Abyssinians appear to have a
special fondness for the large Grevy zebra, which is the
only one they capture, although the smaller, broad-striped
!'. w-i«
HIGHLAND QUAGGA ZEBRA, MALE AND FEMALE
From German East Africa
In the New York Zoological Park
i^KL\'Y /.LLl'-.
AB\ : -.IMA,
Presented to Theodore Roosevelt by Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia
In the National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C.
LIVING SPECIMENS OF HIGHLAND QUAGGA AND GREW ZEBRAS
THE GREW ZEBRA 701
quagga is equally abundant in their domain and shares much
of the same territory as the former. It is commonly as-
sumed that the Grevy zebra occurs on the plains of Shoa, in
the vicinity of Addis Abbaba, the capital of Abyssinia, but
this is by no means the case. The Grevy zebra is confined
to the Rift Valley of Abyssinia, from Lake Zwai south-
ward, and is an inhabitant of low desert or semiarid
country, very different in character from the cool, moist
Abyssinian highlands of the capital. It is doubtless from
the northern extremity of the range, in the vicinity of
Lake Zwai, that the specimens donated by Menelik to
foreign rulers have come. At the present time the Grevy
zebra is not found as far north as that district, but its
absence there may be due to recent extermination by the
Abyssinians consequent upon the extensive introduction
of firearms in the country. Specimens from the western
frontier of Somaliland have been separated by Pocock as
a race, owing to the dark stripes being seal-brown rather
than black. Such color differences, however, are due merely
to the fading effect of the intense desert light and heat.
The specimens with which the Somaliland ones were com-
pared were zoological-garden specimens, obtained by dona-
tions originally from Emperor Menelik. The pure white
character of their light stripes and the blackness of the
dark stripes is due chiefly to the temperate climate in
which they were living. There is practically no difference
in environment and very little in geographical position to
warrant a race in southeastern Abyssinia. In this connec-
tion it may be stated that specimens from British East
Africa are quite identical in shade of coloration of both the
dark and the light stripes to those from Somaliland. Mat-
schie, some years previous to Pocock's description of berber-
ensis, gave the name faurei to a specimen living at the
Zoological Gardens of Paris which had been sent by Menelik
as a gift to President Faure of France. The name was
based on a photograph of the specimen which gave it the
appearance of having a white tail tuft, the character by
which Matschie distinguished his race. The specimen in
question, however, has the tail tuft normal in color, that is,
white on the upper side or outside as it hangs down and
black on the inner or lower side. The black inner side of
702 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
the tuft is much narrower than the white part of the tuft
and in a photograph is often quite invisible. Notwith-
standing the long-known character of the Grevy zebra in
Abyssinia, it has been known from the southern part of its
range in British East Africa only recently. Count Teleki,
during his journey of discovery of Lake Rudolf in 1888, was
the first sportsman to report its occurrence in British ter-
ritory. He met with it near the south end of Lake Rudolf
and along its eastern shore. William Astor Chanler was,
perhaps, the next sportsman to meet with it, in 1892, during
his exploration of the Northern Guaso Nyiro River and the
Lorian swamp. In 1898 A. H. Neumann, in his "Elephant
Hunting in East Equatorial Africa," gave the first careful
account of the habits and distribution of the species in
British East Africa.
The big zebra, which our porters called kangani, was
only met with by us on the banks of the Northern Guaso
Nyiro. The country was very dry, it being evident that no
rain had fallen for many months, and under the blazing
equatorial sun the grass had withered almost to straw, and
the dry acacias and wait-a-bit thorns were almost leafless.
The strange candelabra euphorbias, and trees covered by a
mass of green, fleshy thorns instead of leaves, seemed to
harmonize well with the landscape. The only water was in
the Northern Guaso Nyiro or an occasional rare stream
flowing into it. Back from the river were hills and buttes,
bordering the dry plains, which were sometimes bare and
sometimes covered with stretches of leafless thorn scrub.
It was bad galloping, for the ground was rotten in places,
and in other places covered with volcanic stones; but the
game ran as if unhampered by either the stones or the
rotten ground.
On the bare, grassy plains, and more rarely where there
THE GREVY ZEBRA 703
was thin thorn scrub, the kangani were met with in small
parties and troops of half a dozen to thirty or forty indi-
viduals. Once we came on a plain where the troops had
gathered into a loose herd of several hundred individuals.
The big zebras mix freely not only with the oryx herds but
also with the herds of the smaller zebra. It is curious that
they should associate continually and on such good terms
with the smaller zebra, and yet never breed with them.
Apparently they treat their smaller cousins precisely as
they do the various species of antelope. Sometimes the
mixed herds of kanganis, bonte-quaggas, and oryxes are
divided almost equally among the three species; more often
one or two individuals of one species are found with a herd
of another; and often, of course, the herd is composed exclu-
sively of one species. The kangani herds usually contain
one master stallion. The stallions fight viciously with one
another. In several instances we killed stallions whose
testicles had not come down, and were concealed within the
belly wall.
The gaits of the big zebra are a slashing trot and a
gallop, whereas the small zebra canters. It has a peculiar
screaming whinny, utterly unlike the barking cry of the
common zebra. Its very long ears, thrown forward in curi-
ous interest, enable it to be recognized at a distance. Its
stripes, being narrow and uniform, fade into a general gray
at a distance at which the stripes of the ordinary zebra,
especially those on the rump, are still plainly visible; afar
off the zebras look like wild asses. We found the big zebra
much more wary than the common zebra, but in their habits
of grazing, drinking, and resting the two species were not
distinguishable; indeed in these respects they behaved much
704 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
like the oryx, with which they were associated, although it
Is said that the oryx can go without drinking while the
zebra cannot, and so is found in much drier regions. The
great enemy of the big zebra, as of the common zebra and
the oryx, was the lion; and we also found one instance in
which a leopard had killed a half-grown kangani and actu-
ally dragged part of the carcass into the branches of a thorn-
tree.
Aside from the well-marked difference in color pattern, the
Grevy zebra has distinctive differences in body proportions
and shape. The head is decidedly enlarged and lengthened,
the hoofs are broad, and the ears are greatly expanded and
lengthened, exceeding in width the long ears of the African
ass. The broad ears are apparently an adaptation which
conforms with the brushy nature of their habitat, where
acute hearing is of vital importance, and the broad hoofs
are also to be attributed to environmental effect, that is,
to the sandy and porous nature of much of the desert area
in which they dwell. The tail tuft is rather small and con-
fined to the extreme tip of the tail. The body coloration is
quite distinctive. It consists of numerous, narrow trans-
verse stripes, alternate whitish and blackish in color and
of equal width, except on the neck, where the dark stripes
are broader. An important distinction in the Grevy is
the absence of diagonal or longitudinal stripes on the rump
and hips, where the stripes are transverse. In the moun-
tain zebra of South Africa there is a suggestion of this pat-
tern in the narrow gridiron of the rump. In general, the
color pattern resembles more closely that of the latter species
than the quagga or bonte-quagga type. The stripes of the
head are arranged quite as in the other two species. The
sexes are quite indistinguishable in coloration, and the newly
born young are essentially the same in pattern, though some-
what lighter in color. The ground-color, or rather the color
of the light stripes, is pale ochraceous-buff, except on the
under-parts and inside of the legs, where it is more whitish
or cream color. The dark stripes vary in intensity from
THE GREW ZEBRA 705
seal-brown to bistre, and are always a decided brown rather
than black in tone. They are darkest on the neck and
lightest on the rump and face, where they sometimes as-
sume a reddish tint or chestnut color. The median ventral
stripe is hair-brown and much lighter than the stripes on
the dorsal surface. The nose is marked by a bright-tawny
patch bordered behind by an unstriped area of pale-buff
and in front by the white lips and chin. The terminal half
of the ears is seal or bistre brown, in contrast to the pale-
cream ground-color of the lower half and inner side. The
tail tuft is rather shorter than in other zebras and measures
only 9 or lo inches in length. In appearance it is cream-
white above, lined below by black hair. From the crown
to the withers extends a short, erect mane some 6 or 7 inches
in height and striped alternately with light and dark trans-
verse stripes continuous with their fellows on the neck.
No variation in mane due to age, such as takes place in the
quagga, occurs in this species. The newly born young are
quite reddish on the body, due to the russet color of the
body stripes, but the forward half of the body and the legs
are striped by dark seal-brown, as in the adults. At this
early age the nape mane is short and fuzzy and continuous
along the midline of the back by a low mane covering the
dorsal stripe. The striped pattern in the adult consists of
twenty or twenty-two transverse dark stripes on the body
between the shoulder stripe and the hip stripe, the stripes
having a width of i to lyi inches, the light interspaces
being somewhat narrower and measuring Y^, of an inch in
width. They extend vertically from the light border of
the dorsal stripe to the lower sides, but do not cross the
belly and join the ventral stripe, but terminate abruptly
on the lower sides. Posterior to the hip stripe the rump is
marked by very narrow transverse stripes >< inch in width,
which are somewhat diagonal in direction and become
progressively shortened as the base of the tail is approached.
Below the forking of the hip stripe the transverse leg stripes
begin and continue down the hind limb to the hoof. The
middle line of the back is marked by a broad dorsal stripe
2 inches wide from the withers quite to the tail tuft and is
bordered for most of its length by a broad light stripe of the
ground-color, except on the withers, where the transverse
706 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
stripes unite with it. The neck is marked by nine or ten
transverse stripes varying much in width, the widest being
the median ones, which attain a width of 2>^ or 3 inches. The
crown of the head is marked by numerous very fine longi-
tudinal stripes which terminate on the snout midway be-
tween the tip and the eyes. The sides of the head and the
cheeks are marked by wider transverse stripes which meet
below on the throat. The legs are marked by numerous
narrow transverse stripes which completely encircle the
limb with the exception of the upper part, near the body,
where they are broken on the inner side. A series of twelve
adult skins from the Northern Guaso Nyiro district show
very little variation in color. The stripes, however, vary
considerably in different individuals or on different sides of
the same individual. The transverse stripes of the back and
neck often fork irregularly on the sides of the body, and the
leg-bands are even more irregular in this regard. Albinism,
though rare, is not unknown among Grevy zebras, but no
instances of partial albinism have been reported. One of
the British East African game rangers, A. Blayney Percival,
collected a uniformly white specimen near the Lorian
swamp from a herd of normally colored individuals. This
specimen was presented by Percival to the British Museum
and is now on exhibition in one of the galleries. Although
it is entirely white, the dark stripes can be traced in its coat
as faint darker shadows.
An adult male specimen from the Northern Guaso Nyiro,
shot by Colonel Roosevelt, measured in the flesh: head and
body, 8 feet 3 inches; tail, 22 inches; hind foot, 24 inches;
length of ear, 9 inches. These dimensions represent an
average adult of either sex, the females being quite equal
to the males in size. The largest skulls in a series of four-
teen specimens in the National Museum measure in greatest
length: male, 25 inches; female, 24>< inches. Specimens
have been recorded by A. H. Neumann in British East
Africa as far south as the junction of the Tana and Mac-
kenzie Rivers, east of Mount Kenia, thence northward to
the northeast slope of the Lorogi Mountains and northward
along the east shore of Lake Rudolf to the mouth of the
Omo River. No authentic records of Grevy zebra in the
Turkana country west or southwest of Lake Rudolf have
MAP 39 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE GREVY ZEBRA
1 Dolichohippus grevyi
707
708 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
been found, and it appears that Lake Rudolf marks the
eastern Kmits of its range. On the Northern Guaso Nyiro
it is found along both banks throughout the low desert lands
traversed by the river from its formation by the junction
of the Guaso Nyuki and Guaso Narok down to its terminus
in the Lorian swamp. North of the river it is found through-
out the desert in the vicinity of springs or water-holes.
Eastward toward the sea the limits of its range are not
known except in the north where it extends as far east as
the boundary of British Somaliland. As it has not been
reported from the coast north of the Tana River, it doubt-
less does not extend much farther east than the Lorian
swamp.
CHAPTER XXIV
ELEPHANTS
Family Elephantidcs
The elephants are perhaps best characterized by their
proboscis, or trunk, which in the true elephant has developed
into a grasping or prehensile organ several feet in length
and capable of as delicate manipulation as the hand of the
higher apes. The great length of the proboscis in the
typical elephants has given rise to the name Proboscidce, by
which the order is known. This group comprises the living
elephants and all of the fossil elephant-like mammals, the
most primitive of which were quite unlike modern elephants,
being no larger than tapirs, with very short trunks and
tusks. The great bodily bulk of the living members, how-
ever, is quite characteristic of the family Elephantidce.
Combined with the great bodily size we find an adaptive
leg structure, the legs being straight and columnar so as to
support the great body weight, a condition also common
to some extinct groups of giant mammals and such colossal
reptiles as the giant dinosaurs. The primitive or remote
ancestral elephant-like mammals had bent or angulated
limbs similar to those of the hoofed mammals. The knees
are placed low, being well outside the body and very differ-
ent from the position they occupy in the horse and other
hoofed mammals. The feet are primitive in structure, being
evenly five-toed, but are united at the base into a more or
709
710 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
less solid hoof which shows evidence of three or four of the
toes in the nail-like division on its margin. Placed almost
immediately above the hoof we find the ankle, which occu-
pies a position somewhat similar to that in man and the apes.
This arrangement gives the foot great flexibility and enables
the elephant to perform many movements of which the
hoofed mammals are quite incapable. The head is im-
mensely enlarged so as to support the tusks or canine teeth,
the enormous size of which is a further peculiarity of ele-
phants. In order to increase the size of the skull so as to
give greater surface for muscular attachment, the occipital
and parietal bones have been increased greatly in extent
and thickness by the development of sinuses having a
light honeycomb structure. The brain case has in this
way attained a thickness of some fifteen or twenty inches,
and it is this great mass of bony tissue surrounding the
brain which makes the elephant so difficult an animal to
kill, owing to the diflFiculty of locating the brain. The bony
expansion of the skull is chiefly upward, over the occipital
portion, in the form of a great dome, which is cut off abruptly
at the back so as to build a great wall for the attachment
of the muscles which move the head. A further striking
peculiarity of the skull is the expansion of the premaxillary
bones into great sheaths for the support of the immense
tusks. The elephants also show marked specialization in
the structure of their molar or cheek-teeth. These in the
true elephants are made up of a series of folds of enamel and
dentine, which are bound together by a cement layer form-
ing a tooth with a very long crown, a foot or more in length
and of great height, so that it can withstand an immense
amount of wear. Only one or part of two teeth are in use
ELEPHANTS 711
at a time on either side above and below. As they wear
down they are pushed forward and upward by succeeding
teeth behind them. In this way the teeth are continually
being moved forward, and pass through the jaws from be-
hind forward as they are worn down. No other living
group of mammals, with the exception of the manatees, are
known to possess a similar method of tooth succession.
The teeth usually number six on a side, the first three which
pass through the jaw being considered the milk molars.
The largest tooth of all in number of enamel plates and in
size is the last one to appear, the number of plates usually
being more than twice as many as in the first tooth. The
lower jaw is extremely short in the typical elephants, and
furnished only with molar teeth, but is armed in some of the
more primitive elephants, such as the mastodon, by short
incisor tusks. The living elephants are remarkably distinct
from other mammals, and until recently paleontologists
have not been able to trace them back to their probable
remote ancestral forms. Recently, in beds of Eocene age
at Fayum, Egypt, Doctor Andrews, of the British Museum,
discovered fossil remains of some ancestral forms which
tend to link the modern elephants with forms which show
some aflrinity to the ancestors of the manatees. The exami-
nation of the bones of these remote elephant-like mammals
has led Doctor Andrews to believe that Africa was the orig-
inal home of the elephants, and that later, during Miocene
time, some of the more highly developed forms spread north-
ward into Europe, Asia, and North America, and finally,
during Pleistocene time, into South America. The fossil
genera and species of elephants are very abundant in the
Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe, Asia, and North America.
712 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The ancient African evidence rests chiefly upon the Fayum
beds, but elephant remains of Miocene age, representing an
aberrant type, Dinotherium, have also been found near
Lakes Victoria Nyanza and Rudolf, in equatorial Africa.
A mastodon of Pleistocene age is also recorded from South
Africa. There exists to-day only a small remnant of the
family, representing but two genera, Elephas^ confined to
southern Asia, and Loxodonta, confined to Ethiopian Africa.
African Elephant
Loxodonta
Loxodonta F. Cuvier, 1827, Zool. Journ., vol. Ill, p. 140; type Elephas
africanus Blumenbach.
Although Cuvier established the genus Loxodonta for the
African elephants more than eighty years ago, the African
has been associated by naturalists generally with the In-
dian elephant in the genus Elephas. Cuvier called attention
to the much wider or lozenge shape and the lesser number
of the enamel plates in the molar teeth in the African ele-
phant in comparison with the Indian, and upon such distinc-
tion the genus was founded. Owing, however, to there
being but two living forms, no attempt has been made to
recognize the generic distinction between the two except by
some paleontologists, who have many species to consider
and find such a generic division of importance in the classi-
fication. Besides the differences in the molar teeth there
are many other distinctions in structure which are of ge-
neric value. The skull in the African elephant is evenly
rounded on the crown, being perfectly dome-shaped and
without the median depression which in the Indian separates
the crown into two rounded knobs or bosses. An important
external distinction between the two elephants is the enor-
mous size of the ear in the African elephant, in which it cov-
ers the entire neck and withers and reaches as low as the
breast, the height often equalling half the standing height
of the animal. The African also has a more sloping dorsal
profile, the body sloping downward from the crown of the
ELEPHANTS 713
head rather than from the withers, owing to the higher car-
riage of the head. Other differences are the presence of a
nipple on the lower edge of the tip of the trunk as well as
the one on the upper, the larger tusks, and the lesser number
of hoof-like nails on the margin of the hoof in the African.
The genus Loxodonta is a much less specialized group than
Elephas^ as shown by the lesser number of enamel plates
in the molar teeth and the rounded outline of the dorsal
surface of the skull. The enormous size of the ears, the
additional nipple on the tip of the trunk, and the lesser
number of hoof-like divisions in the feet of Loxodonta are,
however, specializations not found in the living representa-
tive of the genus Elephas. In skull shape the African is,
however, decidedly like the genus Mastodon^ being evenly
rounded over the parietal or occipital part, and also convex
in profile on the forehead above the nasal opening, instead
of concave as in Elephas. In tooth structure it is somewhat
intermediate between Mastodon or Stegodon and Elephas, the
number of plates being intermediate in number and the teeth
narrower and often showing, when unworn, a want of cement
on the crown, so that the enamel plates project when unworn
as ridges similar somewhat to the condition found in Mastodon.
The teeth, however, are long-crowned, as in Elephas, and very
different in this character from the short-crowned teeth of
Mastodon. The Indian elephant, although having as many
as twenty-four plates to its last molar tooth, is not the most
highly specialized form in this regard, but such distinction
belongs to the recently extinct hairy elephant, or mammoth,
Elephas primigenius, of the boreal regions. The plates in
the mammoth number as many as twenty-seven in the last
molar and were narrower, much more crowded, and longer
than in the Indian. The molar teeth of all elephants have
progressively more and more ridges as we advance from
the first to the last tooth in the order of their succession.
Usually only the formula of the last three, or permanent
set, is considered. In the African elephant the ridge formula
in the permanent molars is: first, 6 or 7; second, 8 or 9;
and last, 10 or 12. In the Indian this formula runs usually:
first, 12; second, 16; and third, 24. The two living ele-
phants are both less specialized than some of the extinct
forms belonging to the same genera. In a broader way.
714 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
the persistence of ancient types occurred among the genera
in past geologic ages. Thus one of the primitive genera,
Mastodon, hngered until the last or Pleistocene age in the
northern hemisphere, in much of which territory it lived
with and supplanted the more highly specialized genus
Elephas. The African elephant, which is to-day the giant
among the land mammals, was exceeded in height by some
of the fossil species, notably by Elephas imperator, from the
Pliocene of North America, which attained a height of 13
feet or over at the withers. Another form of gigantic size
was the Pleistocene species, Elephas meridionalis, of southern
Europe, which attained a height of considerably more than
12 feet and was, like imperator, one of the allies of the Indian
elephant. A gigantic fossil species, antiquus, of the Pliocene
of southern Europe, related to the African elephant and
likewise a member of the genus Loxodonta, was scarcely less
in height than imperator. The African elephant, which at-
tains a height of 11 feet or slightly more at the withers,
although exceeded in height by these fossil species, can
scarcely be said to be a smaller animal in bulk. No fossil
elephant is known which had a larger skull. The gigantic
species, though taller, were relatively small-skulled forms.
The tusks of many of the extinct species were very long and
exceeded the average African tusks greatly in this dimension.
The great length in the extinct species was often due to
their having become of no functional use, so that, in the
absence of wear, their points grew to immense length, curving
either upward or inward in a large circle and overlapping
one another, as in the case of some mammoths. Record
tusks of the African elephant approach very closely in thick-
ness or diameter to the largest of those of the gigantic fossil
species. The disuse to which the tusks were subjected in the
mammoths would account for the smaller size of the skull,
there being less need for the development of bony crests for
muscular attachment for wielding the tusks than in the
living African species in which the tusks are subject to
much use and wear. At the time these giant species were
flourishing there were also pygmy species, some five feet in
height, living actually with their larger kin on some of the
islands in the Mediterranean, notably Malta and Crete.
Such small species were related to the African elephant and
ELEPHANTS 715
may be considered members of the genus Loxodonta. A
pygmy species living in West Africa has been described re-
cently, but it has no standing in nature, being simply a
young specimen of the West African elephant. The only true
pygmy species at present known are the fossil ones from the
Mediterranean basin. The genus Loxodonta was doubt-
less of African derivation in late Miocene time. Allied
forms derived from the African stock appeared in southern
Europe and Asia in the Pliocene, but the genus continued to
exist in tropical Africa, to which region it is now confined.
The genus is represented by a single species of which three
or four geographical races may be recognized by differences
in shape of ears and body size. Elephants were until re-
cently quite universally distributed over Africa, from the
northern borders of Abyssinia and the southern edge of
the Sahara Desert southward to the Cape, from sea-level
to the limits of vegetation on the highest mountains. At
the present time they have been exterminated over a con-
siderable part of this area and exist only in the more remote
and inaccessible tropical portions of the continent.
Cape Elephant
Loxodonta africana capensis
Native Names: Swahili, temho ; Masai, ol-tome ; Luganda, njovu ;
Acholi, leati.
Elephas capensis Cuvier, 1798, Tableau Elementaire, p. 149.
Range. — From the Cape region of South Africa north-
ward throughout the East Coast and central lake region,
through British East Africa and Uganda to the Abyssinian
highlands and Somaliland; west as far as the Congo-Nile
watershed; at present exterminated over much of this ter-
ritory and confined, except where preserved, to the more
inaccessible parts.
The earliest name for the African elephant was pro-
posed by Blumenbach in 1779, who applied to it the name
africajia and described the range as Middle and South
Africa. A decade later Cuvier described the African ele-
phant as a species, capensis, not being aware of Blumen-
bach's earlier name. In order to make Cuvier's name ap-
plicable for the race occurring in southern and eastern Africa,
716 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
we have applied the older name, africana, to the form in-
habiting the Congo basin, which may be taken as repre-
senting part, at least, of the area which Blumenbach called
Middle Africa. Since the eighteenth century no new names
for African elephants have been proposed until the year
1900, when Matschie published a paper describing three
new species, one from East Africa, another from Abyssinia,
and a third from the Cameroons. Matschie recognized
four species: capensis of South Africa, knochenhaiieri of
East Africa, oxyotis of Abyssinia, and cyclotis of West Africa,
typically the Cameroons. His species were founded upon
differences in ear shape chiefly and, as far as our present
knowledge is concerned, hold good as racial distinctions,
with the exception of the distinctions drawn between the
East African and the Cape elephant, which are apparently
racially identical. The Cape or East African race is char-
acterized by the large size of the ear, which has a height in
adult bulls of from 4 to 5>^ feet, or quite half that of the
standing height of the animal. The ear is rectangular in
shape, being folded in at the top so that the upper outline
runs parallel with the neck, and the point or lappet being
formed by the lower margin and the hinder meeting at
right angles below the throat, or rather in front of the chest,
gives the ear its rectangular shape. This is the largest
race, the record elephants in height of body and dimensions
of tusks being South or East African specimens. In the
highland region of Abyssinia, particularly the northern
slopes of its plateau region in the area drained by the Blue
Nile and the Atbara River, we find a second race of ele-
phants, called by Matschie oxyotis. It may be distinguished
from the East African race, or capensis, by the absence of
the fold on the upper margin of the ears, the ears folding
over the nape of the neck but not bent back upon them-
selves. The ear is also more pointed or pear-shaped, being
narrower, with a longer lappet. In some specimens the
hinder and part of the upper margin of the ear is folded
forward for a width of two or three inches, as in the Indian
elephant. The species described from the Cameroons by
Matschie as cyclotis is the most distinct in ear shape of all
the races. The ear in this race is elongate and evenly
rounded on its entire hinder border and is without any fold
ABYSSINIAN ELEPHANTS
In the New York Zoological Park
Showing absence of folds on upper margin of ears
CAMEROON ELEPHANT, MALE
Type of Elephas pumilio
In the New York Zoological Park
Showing small circular ears typical of cyclotis
THE ABYSSINIAN AND WEST AFRICAN RACES OF THE ELEPHANT
ELEPHANTS 717
on its upper margin. The elephants of this type are the
smallest in Africa and have also relatively the smallest
ears. A member of this race was described in 1906 as a
pygmy race, for which the name pumilio was proposed.
The specimen on which this race was based was a living
specimen at the Hagenbeck Gardens and was at the time
only 3>^ feet in height and weighed some 600 pounds, but
was assumed to be at least half grown, the age being stated
to be six years. It was, however, a small animal in 1906,
when described, but has since grown up under the care of
the New York Zoological Park and at present has a height
of 5 feet 7 inches and a weight of 2,250 pounds. It is
annually subject to some incurable skin disease, which has
retarded its growth and no doubt accounts for its under-
sized condition. The shape of the ears is quite identical with
those of typical cyclotis of West Africa, from which region
it is said to have come. Whether the Congo elephants have
rounded ears, similar to those of cyclotis^ is not at present
known, but it appears from photographic evidence that
they are somewhat different in shape and are intermediate
in size between the small-eared race, cyclotis, and the large-
eared, capensis, and have an inward fold on the upper margin
of the ears, as in the latter race. We have, accordingly,
allowed them to stand as the typical race, africana, of
Blumenbach. Since Matschie has pointed out the ear
differences in the races here recognized, several other races
have been described by other naturalists. We have failed
to find, however, substantial proof of their distinctness in
the specimens we have examined. Most of such races are
based on slight distinctions drawn between individual
specimens from various parts of East and South Africa, and
represent, to a considerable degree at least, individual varia-
tion. Differences in skull shape between the races here
recognized have not yet been established, owing to the great
individual variation to which the skull is subject. The size
of the tusks influences the premaxillary region greatly, the
size of the premaxillary bones which sheath the tusks being
in direct relation to the size of the tusks, which are well
known to have an immense individual variation. Distinc-
tions based upon the relationship of the width to the length
in such bones is on this account of questionable racial value.
718 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
The depth or size of the fossa occupying the upper surface
of the premaxillary bones Hkevvise depends upon the size of
the tusks also. In a great measure the size of the skull is
influenced by the tusks, the larger-tusked elephants having
decidedly the larger skulls. Besides the individual varia-
tions in skulls due to tusk diff^erences, there is a marked age
variation. The dome of the skull as represented by the
cellular mass of bony tissue which surrounds the brain
grows throughout a long period and seems to keep pace in
its development with the growth of the tusks. On this
account only skulls of absolutely the same age may be com-
pared as regards their shape or the relative proportion of
parts.
We found elephant in the cool forests and bamboo belts
of Mount Kenia and among Its foot-hills; in the open plains
and scanty thorn woods near the 'Nzoia River; in the tree
jungle and tall elephant grass of Uganda; and in the hot,
dry country along both banks of the upper White Nile.
With the possible exception of the lion, the elephant is
the wisest and most interesting of all the kinds of big game.
Most wild animals lead very simple lives; and, while most of
them at times perform queer and unexpected feats or show
traits that upset the observer's previous generalizations,
there is ordinarily not much variety or originality in what
they do. But the lion is forced by the exigencies of a life
of prey to develop abilities as marked as they are sinister;
and the elephant, instead of growing in stupidity as well as
weight, has become the most intelligent of graminivores,
with an emotional and intellectual nature sufficiently com-
plex to make him a subject of endless interest to the observer.
The elephant's physical and mental equipment fits it for
life under utterly diverse conditions. Most game animals
live in narrowly circumscribed habitats; for instance, the
ELEPHANTS 719
bushbuck In the forests, the hartebeests on the plains, the
oryx in dry, almost desert country. But the elephant wan-
ders everywhere, being equally at home in the haunts of
bushbuck, oryx, and hartebeest. It goes high among the
cold bamboo belts of the mountains; it loves the hot, dense,
swampy lowland forests; it lives in the barren desert where
it has to travel a score of miles for a drink of bitter water.
Sometimes herds make long migrations, swarming for sev-
eral months in a locality, while during the rest of the year
not an elephant will be found within a hundred miles of it.
Elsewhere they may live in the same neighborhood all the
year round. On the south slope of Mount Kenia we found
the elephants living in the daytime in the thick forest, but
at night often wandering down into the plain to ravage the
shambas, the cultivated fields near the native villages. In
the Lado we found herds of elephants living day and night
in the same places, in the dry, open plains of tallish grass
sprinkled with acacias and a few palms. The old bulls
usually keep by themselves, alone or in small parties; herds
exclusively composed of cows and calves are common; but
often both sexes mingle in a herd, and some of the largest
tuskers are always accompanied by herds of cows, which
seem to take a pride in them and watch over and protect
them.
The wide individual and local variation in habits should
make the observer very cautious about making sweeping
generalizations; and, moreover, there is often an undoubted
difference of personal equation in the observer. In Sander-
son's capital book "The Wild Beasts of India" he states
that elephant cows do not leave the herd to calve and that
both bulls and cows habitually lie down. In the parts of
720 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Africa the Roosevelt safari visited the elephants practically
never lie down at all; that is, the cases where they do are so
wholly exceptional that they can be disregarded. We heard
of such instances from the 'Ndorobo or Wakamba hunters,
or from old white elephant hunters, but always as some-
thing curious and unusual. In carefully following various
herds and individuals, carefully examining the trails they
had made during the preceding twenty-four or even forty-
eight hours, we never came across an instance where any
elephant had lain down. They slept and rested standing.
But in the desert, north of the Northern Guaso Nyiro,
Heller found them lying down. Whether the cows ever
calve without leaving the herd we cannot say; in the only
case brought to our attention of the site of a calf's birth
being found, the cow had retired to an isolated place,
where she had evidently spent the first two or three days
after the calf was born before rejoining the herd.
By the time the calf is a week old, the mother has joined
the herd, usually composed of other nursing or expectant
mothers and of half-grown animals of both sexes. The cow
takes the utmost care of the calf; if it is drinking at a pool
she will chase away any other member of the herd which she
thinks may interfere with it. The cows guard the calves
against the attacks of wild beasts. In extremely rare cases
three-parts grown elephant cows or half-grown bulls have
been attacked by parties of hungry lions; but, as a rule, an
animal is safe after it is three or four years old. Young
calves, however, are eagerly sought after by lions and even
by leopards and hyenas. The cows are always on the alert
against such foes, and drive them away in a twinkling if
they are discovered, uniting in the rush against them, just
ELEPHANTS 721
as they frequently unite in a rush against the human hunter.
Tarlton once witnessed such a charge by a party of elephant
cows against a lion. They chased it several score yards.
It just managed to escape into a belt of thick forest, which
the cows in their rage then proceeded to wreck for an area
of many yards.
Elephants are at home in all kinds of ground. They
climb astonishingly well, clambering up and down places
where it seems extraordinary so huge a creature can go at all.
They also frequent swamps and marshes and swim broad
rivers, but they sometimes get mired down. The captain
of the launch that took us from Butiaba told us that he once
found three elephants still alive, but fast in the deep mud
some distance from the bank of the Nile. They were young-
ish beasts, nearly full grown. Elephants travel very great
distances when thoroughly alarmed or when on migration;
no other game comes anywhere near them in this respect.
They prefer shade at noon, but do not find it essential.
Again and again we saw herds standing throughout the hot
hours, in bush no higher than their backs, in tall grass that
did not reach as high as their backs, or in short grass among
almost leafless acacias; and this not only among the fairly
cool foot-hills of Kenia and by the 'Nzoia River, but by the
banks of the White Nile. By the Nile the elephant herds,
like the rhinos, and like the buffalo near Nairobi, were
often accompanied by flocks of white cow herons. It was
often possible to tell where the great beasts were by watch-
ing the flocks of white herons circling over the reeds or
perched in the tree tops near by. On burnt ground or in
short grass the herons would all march alongside their
hosts, catching the grasshoppers which were disturbed by the
722 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
tramping of the huge feet. As soon as the elephants entered
reeds or tall grass, the herons all flew up and lit on their
heads and backs. With their trunks the elephants could
readily have gotten rid of the birds, but from the oldest to
the youngest — perhaps a pink calf — they evidently accepted
the situation as a matter of course.
Elephants, like most game, spend the major part of their
time eating; but unlike most game their food is of great
variety. They graze and browse indifferently. They are
fond of making inroads on the fields of the natives, devouring
immense quantities of beans and corn and melons, and
destroying far more than they devour. They are fond of
various fruits, some of them so small that it must be both
laborious and delicate work to pick them in sufficient num-
bers to stay the giant beasts' appetite. We have watched
one feeding on grass; it behaved in the usual leisurely ele-
phant manner, plucking a roll of grass with its trunk, per-
haps waving it about, and then tucking it away into its
mouth. In the stomach of another we found bark, leaves,
abutilon tips, and the flowers and twig ends of a big shrub
or bush Dombeya nairobiensis . They wreck the small trees
on which they feed, butting or rather pressing them down
with their foreheads, or getting on their knees and uproot-
ing them with their tusks. They are fond of feeding on the
acacias, although it is hard to see how they avoid wounding
both their trunks and their tongues and jaws with the
thorns. We have watched one break off^ an acacia branch,
thrust it into its mouth, and withdraw it with the leaves
stripped off. Many of the branches it will chew to get the
sap, and then spit out; these chewed branches or canes, to-
gether with the wrecked trees, mark plainly the road a herd
ELEPHANTS 723
has travelled. They do not often feed at noon; but during
all the remainder of the day and night they feed at any
time they choose. They drink great quantities of water;
but in desert lands this may be only on every other day, and
they may travel fifty miles between drinks. If much hunted
they drink only at night.
Elephants are interesting because they have such varied
feelings, such a wide range of intelligent appreciation.
Doubtless this is in part due to the possession, in the trunk,
of an organ the development of which has itself permitted
development of brain power. Very great brain power could
not have been developed as an accompaniment merely of
hoofs; hands, however imperfect, were necessary, or else
something that would serve as a partial substitute for hands.
By watching a herd of elephants any one can speedily see
the wide range of uses to which the trunk is put, and the
many needs and emotions which it develops and satisfies.
During courtship the bull and cow caress one another
with their trunks. Elephants are very curious, and the
trunks are used to test every object which arouses their
curiosity. The cow is constantly fondling and guiding the
calf with her trunk. The trunk is used to gather every
species of food and to draw water. It is used to spurt dust
or water over the body; it is used to test rotten and danger-
ous ground. It is in constant use to try the wind so as to
guard against the approach of any foe. As one watches the
great beasts the trunks continually appear in the air above
them, uncurling, twisting, feeling each breath of air. Now
and then a great ear is flapped. Now and then the weight of
the body is slightly shifted from one colossal leg to another.
The huge beasts are rarely entirely motionless for any
724 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
length of time. Nor are they long silent, for aside from sub-
dued squeaks or growls, and occasional shrill calls, there are
queer internal rumblings. Their eyes are very bad. Like
the rhino, they can see only as a very near-sighted man sees.
At a distance of eighty yards or so, when in dull-colored
hunting clothes, one can walk slowly toward them or shift
position without fear of discovery. Even near by, if a man
is absolutely motionless, he stands a good chance to escape
observation, although not hidden. But the hearing is good,
and the sense of smell exquisite. They make many differ-
ent noises, and to none of these ordinary noises do the other
elephants pay any heed. But there are certain notes, to our
ears indistinguishable from the others, which signify alarm
or suspicion, and it is extraordinary to see the instantane-
ous way in which, on the utterance of such a sound, a whole
herd will first stand motionless and then move away.
From immemorial ages elephants have been hunted for
their ivory. Whether the great Egyptian monarchs hunted
the African elephant is uncertain, although on their Asiatic
forays they certainly killed the Asiatic elephants which then
existed in Syria and along the valley of the Euphrates. But
the big tusks of the African elephants were already at that
time obtained by barter from the negro tribes south of the
deserts which border the lower Nile. For thousands of
years the range of the great beast has slowly shrunk; but the
slaughter did not become appalling until the nineteenth cen-
tury. In that century, however, the white elephant hunt-
ers, and later the natives to whom the white traders fur-
nished fire-arms, worked huge havoc among the herds, the
work of destruction being, beyond all comparison, greater
than ever before. In South Africa, and over immense tracts
ELEPHANTS 725
elsewhere, the elephants were absolutely or practically ex-
terminated. Fortunately there Is now efficient protection
afforded them In many places by the laws of the European
governments, especially by the British Government. In
Uganda and British East Africa, and along certain parts of
the Nile, the killing of cows and young stock has almost
ceased, and the herds are quite or nearly holding their own.
Naturally, where the beasts are much hunted they be-
come exceedingly shy. They then drink only at night, and
if possible never twice at the same place, and they travel
extraordinary distances between times. The slightest taint
in the air will stampede them, and they then go many miles
without stopping. Sometimes their way will be for many
miles across the burning plains, sometimes through dense
jungle, sometimes through soft, wet soil. In which their feet
punch huge holes. Under such conditions elephant hunt-
ing becomes a work of wearing fatigue, entailing severer and
longer-continued labor than any other form of the chase.
But where the herds are not much molested they often show
astonishing tameness and Indifference to man. Near one
of our camps in the Lado we one morning encountered a
herd of thirty or forty cows, calves, and young beasts, half
and three-quarters grown. They were in a broad, shallow
valley, evidently a swamp In the wet season. The valley
was covered with tall, rank grass, burned off In places, and
dotted here and there with ant heaps and bushes and
acacias. A big flock of cow herons accompanied the herd.
The beasts were feeding on the grass when we first saw them,
and we approached them close enough to see that there
were no big bulls. After finishing feeding they moved off
up the valley, the herons riding on their backs, but dismount-
726 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
ing to stalk through the burned places so as to catch grass-
hoppers. The herd stationed itself for the day among the
thorn-trees on one of the small rises of ground, the herons
advertising the place by perching in a snowy mass on the
acacias. In mid-afternoon the elephants again strolled
forth to feed. They went to water, and were feeding when
night fell. They spent most of the following day in the
neighborhood. During all this time they were within a
couple of miles of camp, and as we watched them close by
we could distinctly hear an occasional camp noise, and the
report of the shot-guns of the ornithologists of the expedi-
tion. Yet the elephants were totally unconcerned.
In regions where the natives are timid and unarmed the
elephants sometimes become not merely familiar but dan-
gerous. They are always fond of ravaging fields and gar-
dens, and when they find that they can do this with impu-
nity they are apt to become truculent toward mankind.
In Uganda we more than once came across deserted villages,
already far on the way again to becoming parts of the
jungle, which we found had been abandoned by the inhabit-
ants because of the ravages of elephants. At one camp
the chief of a neighboring village called on us to ask us
to kill a rogue bull, the leader of a small herd of elephants
which were in its immediate vicinity. He said that the ele-
phants were very bold, were not afraid of men, and that the
bull had grown so vicious that he attacked every man he
came across. Colonel Roosevelt and Kermit went after the
rogue. They found the herd so close to the camp that they
could hear the porters talking and the sound of the axes,
and were charged by the bull as soon as he made them out,
at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. They killed him.
ELEPHANTS 727
We learned that the village, which was a couple of miles
away, had been destroyed by these elephants, under the
lead of the rogue bull. The elephants had begun by rav-
aging the gardens and plots of cultivated ground; the natives
tried to drive them away; the beasts grew bolder and finally
one night when the natives yelled at them, they charged
them, drove them into their huts, and then destroyed sev-
eral of the huts; and one, the rogue bull, killed one and
maimed another of the inhabitants. In out-of-the-way
places wicked herds will sometimes thus attack hunters'
camps, being attracted rather than repelled by the fire. Mr.
Paul Niedieck in his "Rifle in Five Continents" describes
an attack thus made on him in which he nearly lost his life.
Not only are some individual elephants particularly vicious,
but there are whole herds which are vicious.
Elephant hunting, in addition to being ordinarily very
hard work, is often dangerous. As we have elsewhere said,
experienced hunters often differ widely in their estimates as
to how the different kinds of dangerous game rank as foes.
There are many men who regard elephants as the most dan-
gerous of all; and again there are many others who regard
the lion and the buffalo as beyond comparison more formi-
dable. Our own view is that there is a very wide range of
individual variation among the individuals of each species,
and, moreover, that the conditions of country and surround-
ings vary so that one must be very cautious about general-
izing. Judging partly from our own limited experience, and
partly from a very careful sifting of the statements of many
good observers with far wider experience, we believe that,
taking the average of a large number of cases under varied
conditions, the lion is the most dangerous; that a buffalo
728 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
that does charge, especially a bull, when It has actually
begun Its charge, is more dangerous than a lion and much
more dangerous than an elephant; that a single elephant is
less dangerous to attack than a single buffalo, and that the
charge of an elephant is more easily stopped or evaded than
that of a buffalo; but that elephants are very much more apt
themselves to attack than are buffalo, and that, therefore,
there is more danger in the first approach to an elephant
herd than is the case with buffalo. If a big tusker is in a
herd of cows it may be impossible to kill him, because the
cows charge with such savageness as soon as they detect the
approach of the hunter — and, of course, a herd is much
more apt than a single beast to detect him. At the sound of
a shot the cows of a vicious herd, screaming and trumpeting,
crash through the jungle in all directions, and may quar-
ter to and fro down-wind, trying to catch the scent of their
enemy. If a man is caught he is frequently killed ; but often
he escapes, for the very hugeness of an elephant's bulk makes
it unfit to cope with so small an antagonist. An elephant is
more easily turned than a buffalo, when in full charge, al-
though an occasional elephant, usually a vicious bull, will
charge right through the shots, taking the punishment of the
heavy bullets without flinching, and getting home. Of
course, a ball that would cripple a charging lion may have
no effect on the huge bulk of an elephant or the sinewy
mass of a buffalo.
An elephant that means mischief may charge in silence,
the trunk hanging straight down and the great ears cocked
at right angles to the head; it may extend the trunk, scream-
ing or coming on silently; or it may scream loudly, and make
the actual charge with the trunk curled, and this not only
ELEPHANTS 729
when it is passing through jungle, but even in the open. It
is said that elephants only scream when the trunk is ex-
tended, but if this is so, then in some cases the elephants
must curl the trunk the very moment the scream is fin-
ished, for the impression conveyed is that the screaming and
the advent of the furious animal with its trunk curled are
simultaneous. On one occasion, when an elephant charged
us and was stopped by a right and left from Cuninghame
when but a few feet distant, it threw its trunk high in the
air on or immediately after receiving the bullets. Carl
Akeley informs us that one elephant that charged him came
on screaming and thrashing the tall grass, tearing up and
tossing and plucking and brandishing branches and bunches
of grass, so that it looked like a hay-tedder. If an elephant
catches a man it usually falls on its knees and endeavors to
stab him with its tusks; but sometimes it knocks him down,
puts one foot on him, and plucks off his head or legs or arms
with its trunk; and sometimes it snatches him aloft with
its trunk and beats him against the ground, or perhaps
against a tree. A wounded cow elephant, on being ap-
proached by us, struggled to arise and uttered, not a scream,
but a kind of roaring growl.
We spoke above of the fact that elephants are sometimes
found in the desert. This was a surprise to us. We had
already found them high on the cold mountain slopes, in
cool, park-like uplands, in wet, rank, steaming tropic jungles,
in thick forest, and in hot, open, grassy plains. Our old
hunting companion, Mr. R. J. Cuninghame, wrote us of his
experiences with them in the desert north of the Northern
Guaso Nyiro shortly after we left Africa : " From the Chanler
Falls we went north 40 or 50 miles. The country is covered
730 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
with thick, low thorn scrub, all the trees the same height
and the ground flat and without land marks. It was abso-
lutely waterless except a few water holes scraped in dry
sand river beds, and these days apart, weather scorching hot,
and ground covered with sharp quartz and granite, loose
stones. Found our first water at noon on the second day;
got the men in without loads, and the donkeys not until the
next day. The water, which was almost undrinkable ow-
ing to strong alkaline salts, was in old Rendile wells, 8
and lo feet below the surface of the ground. What was my
astonishment at 4 p. m., on the day we struck water to
see a herd of elephants, cows, and totos (young and half-
grown animals) pass within 50 yards of our camp, go and
drink from our wells, and march off again. Eventually I
found another water hole and lots more elephant. The
water made the men sick. I found the next water 40 miles
north of these wells and it was absolutely stinking and un-
touched even by giraffe. It had not rained up here for
^yi years and the heat was really very trying.
"A word about your grand 450 [a Holland double-barrel,
like Mr. Roosevelt's own] for it saved my life twice on this
expedition when out elephant hunting. On the first occa-
sion I had quite unexpectedly found three elephants standing
under some palm trees on the bank of a dry river bed. I
took my companion up to look over the animals. We were
on the opposite bank of the dry river and we went up to
about 30 yards to look them over. They proved to be
two cows with calves and a three parts grown animal, sex
undetermined. My companion wished to take a kodak as
they made such a typical African scene. He fussed about
with the kodak and I saw that the elephants had grown sus-
ELEPHANTS 731
picious. At length he pressed the button, which proved too
much for the nervous system of the tembos [SwahiU for ele-
phants]. With ears outspread and trunks curled up, and
screaming like locomotives they seemed spontaneously all to
charge straight for us. I knew my retreat, as I invariably
make a study of the ground immediately behind and to each
side of me when I go in to tackle elephants and I turned and
fled to the only tree within reasonable distance. This was
12 yards off. The other man bolted on and so did all
the niggers (6 of them). On reaching my tree (15
inches in diameter) I turned to face the charge and found
the 3 animals just topping the bank from which we had
been photographing (12 paces off). I picked out the
leader, the largest cow, and fired. This brought her up all
acheck [second mate's language*] but the others came and
jostled her and she, with them, started for me again. The
2d barrel killed her dead at 9 paces, and as I knew the
others would get me if I stayed, I bolted for the river
bed. The dead cow caused them to swerve and I escaped
them by a very narrow margin. It was the nearest call I
have had for quite some time with elephant. The other
man's 450 double jammed in the safety bolt and he never
fired but wisely kept on running like the niggers, through
the bush. The whole incident was all over in 20 to 25
seconds.
"On the second occasion I was out with the same man on
the foothills of south Kenia and camping in the same small
open patch in the forest where you may remember I took
you to [near where Colonel Roosevelt killed his first ele-
*He had served on whaling ships in the Arctic seas; and we used to com-
pare cow-punchers', lion hunters', elephant hunters', and whaling dialects.
732 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
phant, a big bull, and not far from where Akeley was nearly
killed by another bull]. We got a single bull elephant stand-
ing about 15 yards off. I motioned my man to shoot, but
he was decidedly jumpy over the business and made some
noise. Round swung our friend and started to charge right
on us. My companion let drive with one barrel and man-
aged to hit one of the outspread ears! He had waited so
long that it didn't give me a fair chance, but one shot of the
'Roosevelt gun' brought him down dead as a nail barely
ten yards from me. On this occasion there was absolutely
no chance of escape as we could not move a step in any direc-
tion in the mass of tangled vegetation."
The coloration of the Cape elephant is decidedly of a
gray cast, usually some shade of smoke-gray or light olive-
gray, and is uniform in tint over the whole body except in
the region of the axillae, groins, and lips, where a pinkish
tone usually manifests itself. The calves are a lighter and
purer gray than the adults. The coloration of the ele-
phant, however, is not dependent upon the color of the
actual skin, as in other pachyderms, but upon a roughened
layer of dead epidermis which coats the skin. This dead
epidermal layer is heaviest upon the crown of the head and
over the back, where it is visible as a caked or flaking mass
of dried grayish tissue. The tanned skins of elephants or
the mounted specimens, as a rule, do not show the layer of
dead epidermis, which is usually lost in the tanning process
to which the skins are subjected, and such skins are on this
account brighter or clearer in color and quite olivaceous-
gray in tint. Albino specimens, such as the so-called white
elephants occasionally found in India, are not known in
Africa.
The body of the East African elephant is clothed every-
where by hair, but the individual hairs are so widely scat-
tered and so short that they are only evident upon close
scrutiny of the skin. Over the greater part of the dorsal
surface the individual hairs stand half an inch or an inch
AFRICAN ELEPHANT HERD
Acacia Forest, Meru, Mt. Kenli
From a photograph, copyright 1910, by Kcrrait Roosevelt
ELEPHANTS 733
apart and are roughly an inch or two in length, but on
certain parts of the body they grow much more numerously
and form a definite hair covering. Bordering the ear open-
ing there is such an area forming a conspicuous fringe of
buffy or whitish hair in the shape of a band one or two
inches wide and several inches in length. The hair through-
out the body generally, however, is black and quite unlike
the fringe near the ear opening in color. The lips are mar-
gined by a scanty growth of long black hair which is most
abundant at the angle of the mouth. The eyelashes are
formed of long black hair and are quite conspicuous. The
trunk is armed at its tip and also at intervals along the sides
by stiff, bristle-like tufts of hair somewhat in character like
the tail hair, but quite short and bristle-like. The really
only conspicuous growth of hair possessed by the elephant
is the black tuft at the tip of the tail. It is composed of
exceedingly stiff, wire-like hair the diameter of which repre-
sents the maximum of hair growth among mammals. The
hairs, which are individually some 15 to 30 inches in length,
are confined to the edges of the flattened or compressed tip,
and project out as a thin mane at right angles to the flattened
surface. The tail hairs are individually very few in num-
ber and cover a much greater extent on the lower surface
of the tail, where they extend along the margin some 8
inches, while above they occupy only half that distance or
the terminal 4 inches of the tail. The flattened tip of the
tail and the manner in which the hair projects from it in
the same plane as the compressed surface are closely similar
to the arrangement in the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus,
both thick-skinned animals but quite unrelated to the
elephant.
The hoof-like divisions on the margin of the foot in East
African elephants are four on the front foot and three on
the hind, but usually there is some indication in the form
of a slight knob of the fifth on the forefoot and the fourth
on the hind. The Indian elephant possesses these addi-
tional hoof or nail indications as well marked as the other
nails, and the West African race, cycloiisy is also said to
have them. The internal or bony structure of the toes,
however, shows five to each foot in the East African, which
does not differ in this respect from the Indian, and it is
734 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
evident that the external, nail-Uke hoofs are no indication
of any real differences in bone structure.
There is a large sexual difference in size in the East
African elephant, the males being in bulk fully a third
greater than the females. In weight such difference
amounts to approximately two tons, the adult female attain-
ing an approximate weight of four tons and a large male
six tons. The female averages in height at the withers
lyi feet less than the male and is correspondingly less in
size of skull, ears, and other dimensions generally. The
sexual differences in size of tusks, however, do not follow
this proportion, but they are much less in the female, being
only a fourth the weight and size of those of the male.
Much uncertainty apparently exists among sportsmen
concerning the possible height to which the African elephant
may attain. The recorded heights of large male specimens
measured in the flesh by elephant hunters range from lo
to 12 feet. The differences between these extremes, how-
ever, do not represent the actual variation in specimens,
but rather discrepancies due to differences in methods of
taking measurements. Some of the difficulty of measure-
ment is due to the immense bulk of a bull elephant, which
prevents the body from being moved into a position favor-
able for taking the height unless the animal has fallen on a
level surface in such a way that the legs can be straightened.
The tallest record which appears authentic to us is that of
Major Powell-Cotton's of ii feet 6]/^ inches for a bull
elephant which he shot near the station of Wadelai, on the
upper Nile. Major Powell-Cotton has made many careful
measurements of elephants in the flesh, and his measure-
ments may be taken as fairly reliable. Mr. E. S. Grogan,
while engaged on his "Cape to Cairo" journey, shot a simi-
larly large bull elephant near the same locality, which he
has recorded as ii feet 6 inches high at the withers. The
tallest bull shot by Carl E. Akeley, who has recently devoted
a number of years in East Africa to the securing of a giant
specimen, was one measuring ii feet 4 inches at the withers
from the Budonga forest. He has measured others having
a height of 1 1 feet 2 inches from Uganda and one from Kenia,
the latter bearing immense tusks weighing 250 pounds and
now mounted in the Field Museum of Chicago. We know
ELEPHANTS 735
of no one who has been more painstaking in measuring ele-
phants in the flesh than Akeley. He is of the opinion that
his tallest bull, which was shot primarily for the large size of
its tusks, does not represent the largest bodily size attainable
by the African elephant, and that larger-sized though smaller-
tusked bulls have been seen by him in Uganda. It would be
of real service in this connection if a few of the largest-bodied
specimens out of as large a herd of bulls as could be found
together were collected and their skeletons deposited in
some museum where they would be available for comparison.
There are many other records by sportsmen of ii feet or
more for elephants shot in East Africa. Selous, the veteran
elephant hunter of the Zambesi, however, has never met with
any having a height of 1 1 feet, but states that the range in
height in that part of Africa is from lo feet to lo feet 6 inches.
Another elephant hunter, A. H. Neumann, who has had a
wide experience and was also a careful observer, gives ii
feet 3 inches as the height of the tallest specimen he has
killed, but states that the largest bulls he has shot in the
Lake Rudolf region were less than this, and ranged from
lo feet 6 inches to lo feet 9 inches in height. Our own
measurements of the height of East African bulls fall within
these limits. The tallest elephant in the National Museum
collection is a rogue bull shot by Colonel Roosevelt in
Uganda, having a height of 10 feet 9 inches at the withers.
The bulkiest or largest bull, however, was the first one
which he shot, on the southwest slope of Mount Kenia,
which had a height of 10 feet 6 inches, and tusks weighing
65 pounds apiece. Another large bull, which he shot later,
near Meru, had a height of 10 feet 4 inches. The actual
relative bulk of elephants may best be determined by a
comparison of the size of their skulls. Using this sort of
evidence, we are justified in concluding that the bull from
the southwest slope of Kenia equalled the famous "Jumbo"
in bulk, the skull being decidedly greater in greatest breadth
(some 2 inches), which is a better comparison of relative
size than the height at the withers. "Jumbo" is usually
stated to have stood 11 feet, but Ward only credits him
with 10 feet 7 inches, which is perhaps nearer his actual
height and agrees with the height of his skeleton, 10 feet
4 inches, as mounted at the American Museum of New
736 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
York. Jumbo, however, was a member of another race,
oxyotis; his ears, being without the inward fold on the upper
margin, met one another and overlapped on the nape.
The largest elephant skull examined by us in a series of
some fifty in the museums of America and Europe is a
specimen at the American Museum of Natural History of
New York, collected by Akeley in the Budonga forest of
Uganda. This skull is that of a bull just arrived at adult
size, but not an old animal, and measures in basal length
from the condyles to the tip of the premaxillary bones 40
inches, and in greatest breadth 36 inches, in which latter
dimension it exceeds the next largest by 2 inches. The
tusks of this skull weighed loi and 102 pounds, and are
far from record size. In order to ascertain the maximum
size to which an elephant's skull may attain it is desirable
to have the dimensions of the skulls from which record
tusks have been obtained. In this connection the girth of
the tusk is the important consideration, for both the weight
and length affect the size of the skull less, as they vary
without regard to the size of the skull. There are at present
no skulls preserved in any museum to our knowledge from
which record tusks have come. This is really unfortunate,
for it is very doubtful if any elephants bearing really record
tusks are still alive, owing to the slaughter to which large-
tusked bulls have been subject in every part of Africa.
The tusk record for both weight and circumference is that
of an East African tusk now in the possession of Sir E. G.
Loder, having a weight of 235 pounds and a circumference
of 26 inches. This is really a very unusual tusk, being three
times the weight of an average or normal one. Major
Powell-Cotton, however, has a tusk from the upper Nile
almost equalling this one in circumference, being but i inch
less in this dimension. The largest tusk in the British
Museum, which has a girth but little less, is 24^^ inches in
circumference, and has a weight of 226^2 pounds, standing
second to the record in this latter respect. The longest
tusk is one of 11 feet 5 inches in length, also from East
Africa and now in the National Collection of Heads and
Horns of New York. The average tusk weight in old bulls
to-day is not more than 40 pounds, but under normal con-
ditions before the large bulls were shot for their ivory the
EAST Al lUL .W M l.ni A \ I , 1 I \l A I
Uasiii (;ishu Plateau
From a photograph by Carl E. Akelcy
EAST AFRICAN ELEPHANTS (oLD MALES FIGHTING)
Shot on Mt. Kenia. The elephant with trunk raised, shot by Mrs. C. E. Akeley
Group mounted by Carl E. Akeley in the Field Museum, Chicago
EAST AFRICAN ELEPHANTS FROM MT. KENIA AND THE UASIN GISHU PLATEAU
ELEPHANTS 737
average was approximately 80 pounds per tusk. In this
connection it is interesting to compare the dimensions of
fossil tusks of the recently extinct hairy mammoth, Elephas
primi genius, a species closely related to the Indian elephant
and of considerably smaller body proportions than the
African elephant. The tusks of this species were consid-
erably greater than the African records in every dimen-
sion. The record mammoth tusk has a length of 12 feet
io>^ inches. The record one, according to Ward, in weight
is estimated to have been 330 pounds, it having an actual
circumference of 35 inches, but this gigantic tusk may not be
referable to the hairy mammoth but rather to the giant-
tusked Siwalik elephant, Stegodon ganesa. The record Indian-
elephant tusk is surprisingly small compared with its close
relative, the mammoth. The records for the Indian are:
length, 8 feet 9 inches; weight, 102 pounds; girth, 18^
inches, or about half that of the mammoth. The average
bull Indian elephant, however, has tusks little larger than
those of the cow African elephant. The large bull from the
southwest slope of Mount Kenia previously mentioned
measured in the flesh: in length of head and body from the
tip of the trunk to the base of the tail, 22 feet; in length of
tail, 4 feet 7 inches; in length of trunk measured from the
mouth, 6 feet 11 inches; in height of ear measured over the
fold on the upper margin, 5 feet; in length of ear from
the ear opening horizontally backward to the hinder border,
3 feet 4 inches. The rogue bull shot in Uganda, which was,
according to measurement, a taller animal, measured consid-
erably less in length of body, the length from the tip of the
trunk to the base of the tail being 19 feet 10 inches. The
other dimensions were: length of the tail, 4 feet 8 inches;
height of the ear measured over the fold on the upper margin,
5 feet 8 inches; length of the ear from the ear opening to the
hinder border, 3 feet 4 inches. The flesh measurements of
a fully adult cow shot by Colonel Roosevelt at Meru, on
the northwest slope of Mount Kenia, were: length of head
and body from tip of trunk to base of tail, 18 feet 3 inches;
length of tail, 3 feet 8 inches; height at withers, 8 feet
9 inches; height of ear, including the fold on upper margin,
4 feet 9 inches; length from ear opening to hinder border
3 feet 2 inches. Another cow, a specimen shot by Paul J.
738 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
Rainey near Mount Marsabit, a hundred miles north of
Meru, measured quite the same as this cow in every dimen-
sion. The skull of this specimen is also quite identical in
shape and size. They were both aged animals, having all
the plates of their last molars in use. The dimensions of
this skull are: greatest length from the condyles to the tip
of the premaxillary bones, 31^^ inches; greatest width across
zygomatic arches, 26^ inches; greatest width across back
of occipital expansion, 24^ inches. The tusks of this cow
are very large and exceed in length any others known to us.
The right is 5 feet 7 inches in length, the left 5 feet 10 inches,
and both show a diameter of 10 inches. The heavier one
weighs 28 pounds. The heaviest cow tusk of which we have
a record is one recorded by Selous, from the Zambesi region,
weighing 39 pounds. Cow tusks average 15 pounds in
weight and vary in size much less than those of the bull,
the normal limits ranging from 10 to 20 pounds per tusk.
No size or proportional differences of a racial character be-
tween this cow from the Marsabit desert country and the
one from the Kenia forests have been detected, notwith-
standing the great physical differences of the habitats of the
two specimens. The measurements of large bulls, given by
Neumann, of the Lake Rudolf country, which is a part of
the Marsabit desert region, are quite the same as those of
large bulls from the Kenia forest. At the present time,
however, there is no migration between this region and
Mount Kenia, and we doubt very much whether in the past
the highland forest elephants and the desert ones ever left
their respective environments for long periods. The Afri-
can elephant seems capable of adapting himself to great
differences in climate or environment without undergoing
any noticeable change in external appearance, and on this
account shows no characters of a geographical or racial sort
except in a very broad or general way.
The elephant, until comparatively recently, ranged over
every part of Britjsh East Africa and Uganda, from the sea-
coast to the alpine meadows of the high mountains, as high
as an altitude of 12,000 feet. They migrated freely every-
where over plains, through forest, in scattered bush coun-
try, and even through low, arid deserts, where there is only
a scanty supply of brackish water, confined to widely iso-
MAP 40 — DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OF THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT
1 Loxodonta africana africana 2 Loxodonta africana capensis 3 Loxodonta africana oxyotis
739
740 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
lated springs. No other single species or race of mammal
in East Africa shows such versatility or superiority over
the environmental factors which control animal distribu-
tion. To-day these conditions are much altered, owing to
the persecution of the elephants by ivory hunters and the
extermination of them over much of the territory. As late
as thirty years ago the elephants roamed unmolested In
East Africa, except, perhaps, in the country immediately
adjacent to the coast, where they were subject to occa-
sional onslaughts by Arab and European trading cara-
vans. Count Telekl's expedition, in 1887 and 1888, met with
extraordinary numbers of elephants under conditions which
to-day are quite unknown. About the southern end of
Lake Rudolf Teleki found elephants on open plains many
miles from cover, and had no difficulty whatever in approach-
ing them and shooting any which possessed large tusks.
Some years later, in the desert region at the foot of Mount
Marsabit, Lord Delamere found elephants living under
similar conditions in open country. During his hunting
operations there he took photographs of many elephants
standing or resting in the open country, and found little
difficulty in going up to within a few yards of them by exer-
cising care to keep down-wind. At the present time ele-
phants, although they still exist in limited numbers near
these localities, are never found in such open country dur-
ing daylight. The well-known migratory routes formerly
used by elephants In East Africa in going from one feeding-
ground to another are no longer in use, the elephants being
at the present time so reduced in numbers that they are
confined to certain patches of forest or bush, from which
they fear to roam. The elephants remaining in British
East Africa are to-day confined to the forest area on the
.slopes of Mount Kenia; to the Aberdare forest; the western
slope of the Mau Escarpment, in the Kisi country, east of
the Victoria Nyanza and south of the Uganda Railway;
the forested region of Mount Elgon, from which they wander
occasionally east as far as the Uasin GIshu Plateau and the
west shore of Lake Barlngo. From the Elgon region north-
ward and westward they extend rather generally over the
whole of Uganda and the Nile basin, but they are perma-
nently found in this area only in certain forest tracts;
EAST AFRICAN ELEPHANT, MALE
Shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Meru, Mt. Kenia
Showing inward fold of ear on upper margin
EAST AFRICAN ELEPHANT, FEMALE (wiTH RECORD TUSKS)
Shot by Paul J. Rainey near Mt. Marsabit, B. E. A.
Showing inward fold of ear on upper margin
EAST AFRICAN ELEPHANTS
ELEPHANTS 741
although they are occasionally met with throughout most
of Uganda. A favorite place for them in Uganda Is the
Budonga forest, east of the Albert Nyanza, where Akeley
has recently secured specimens for the American Museum
of Natural History. They are also to be found In the
Bugoma forest, farther south; in the Semliki Valley, and the
region about Ruwenzori generally; and the forest area at
the mouth of the Kagera River, on the west shore of the
Victoria Nyanza. North of Mount Elgon they occur in
limited numbers In the forests clothing the slopes of the
numerous high peaks such as Debaslen, Kizlma, and Agora.
They occur also in the grass country near Gondokoro and
throughout the whole Lado Enclave, or western side of the
Nile north through the Bahr-el-Ghazal drainage. North-
ward along the White Nile they occasionally occur still as far
north as Kaka, where they reach the river by way of the
streams flowing from the Abyssinian highlands. In the
low but desert portions of British East Africa, which are
quite uninhabited, the elephants still have considerable
freedom of movement. The middle and lower Tana Valley
is occupied by them, as is also the coast strip south of It, at
least as far as the mouth of the Sabaki River. North of
the Tana River we find them still in the desert region domi-
nated by the Northern Guaso Nylro. At the present time
they seldom or never come to the river, but are found a
few miles north of it watering at the brackish desert springs
and feeding on the foliage and twigs of the desert acacias.
In this region they are found in small family parties north-
ward to Mount Marsabit, Mount Nyiro, and throughout
the desert generally as far as southern Abyssinia and the
north end of Lake Rudolf. On the southern border of
British East Africa a few elephants are still to be found In
the Kilimanjaro forest.
The total number of skins and skulls of the Cape ele-
phant examined by us comprise some fifty specimens rep-
resenting the following localities: Mount Kenia, Marsabit
region. Lake Rudolf, Uasin Gishu Plateau, British East
Africa; Lindi, German East Africa; Budonga forest, Albert
Nyanza, Kisinga, Uganda; Rhino Camp, Wadelai, Lado En-
clave; Fort Manning, Nyasaland; northern Rhodesia; Cape
Elizabeth, South Africa. The East African and the Uganda
742 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
specimens represent material in the National Museum at
Washington and the American Museum of New York.
Other specimens were examined at the British and Berlin
Museums and in various other European institutions.
CHAPTER XXV
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND PRESERVATION OF
SPECIMENS
We do not think it necessary to go into details of the
equipment of a safari for a trip in East or Middle Africa,
because so much must depend upon the length of the trip,
the locality traversed, and the purposes and individual hab-
its and tastes of the party. A short hunting or collecting
trip along the line of the Uganda Railway can be man-
aged very inexpensively by any fairly competent tyro with-
out a guide. A long trip, however, can only be undertaken
either by a man who is thoroughly up to his work or who
has some good and competent man with him to supply
his own shortcomings. Our own recommendation is that
the outfitting should be done on the spot, although pro-
visions and equipment can readily be obtained in Lon-
don also. Messrs. Newland, Tarlton & Co., of Nairobi,
attended to our outfit, and were we to repeat the trip we
would go to them again. According to American stand-
ards, however, especially of the old-time West, the average
East African sportsmen's outfit is rather needlessly elab-
orate; nevertheless, we question whether a newcomer will
know what it is safe to discard. Mr. Stewart Edward
White in the appendix to his book gives some good recom-
mendations from the standpoint of a hardy man who does
not expect luxuries. Mr. White is wrong in some of his
743
744 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
comments, however; as, for example. In his unsparing con-
demnation of "shorts," which leave the knees bare. Per-
sonally, we do not use these. Kermit Roosevelt always
used them, and in our judgment they are the best leg gear
for those with tough enough skins to stand them. It must
be remembered that East African hunting is based on the
rather luxurious standards of India. Unquestionably, the
country is not such as to permit men to rough it as in the
Rocky Mountains and the north woods, and a safari for
scientific purposes necessarily carries much equipment; but
it is well to keep in mind that there is a tendency toward
overelaboration of outfit in East Africa as in India.
As for weapons, we, personally, believe in a heavy
double-barrelled cordite, such as the English .450-calibre
and .400-calibre modern rifles, for buffalo, rhinoceros, and
elephant. The ordinary weapon to be used for nine-tenths
of the game should be a first-class small-bore repeater of
not more than .300 calibre. These two types of rifles are
all that are necessary, and, at a pinch, the latter will serve
all purposes. But the heavy gun should be used by those
who intend regularly to hunt the different kinds of heavy,
dangerous game; and if lion and leopard are to be hunted,
it would be well to have an intermediate repeating rifle of
about .350 to .405 calibre. This will not carry such long
distances as the small calibre, but it is better for stopping
purposes, and is yet very handy. We emphatically believe
in a repeater for use against the big cats.
From a zoological or museum standpoint the whole suc-
cess of a shooting expedition hinges upon the successful
preservation of the trophies secured by the hunters. It is
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 745
rare, however, to find a sportsman who devotes the proper
attention and time to this feature of his expedition. Few
indeed have the cardinal principles of skin preservation in
mind, however good their intentions may be toward the col-
lecting of the skins of the animals killed. The great ma-
jority of sportsmen leave the work to ignorant and indolent
native assistants, whose work is only of value when under
the constant supervision of a responsible person.
Specimens destined for scientific use in collections or
museums should be carefully measured in the flesh. The
four measurements universally required are: (i) the total
length from the tip of the snout to the terminal end of the
tail vertebrae, taken along the contour of the dorsal profile
with the head stretched out in line with the body [sometimes
this measurement is taken in a straight line between up-
rights; Colonel Roosevelt took many in this fashion]; (2)
length of tail vertebrae, taken by holding the tail at right
angles to the body and measuring from the base of the angle
to the terminal tip of the flesh, but not including the hair;
(3) length of the hind foot, taken from the tip of the hoof or
longest claw to the back of the heel or hock; (4) length of
ear, taken from the inner notch as near the auditory meatus
as possible to the extreme tip. The height is often taken,
as it is a favorite measurement of sportsmen. Little reliance
can be placed on its accuracy, however, on account of the
very diverse conditions under which it is necessarily taken.
In the live, standing animal the measurement of the height
at the withers is of value when it can be obtained. The
same measurement taken in dead animals is not, however,
strictly comparable with this, owing partly to the fact that
the shoulder-blade in the hoofed mammals is set free in the
746 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
muscles of the shoulder, being without any direct bone con-
nection with the trunk skeleton, and partly to the fact that
an animal lying on its side has the weight of the body re-
lieved from the forelegs which are then capable of being
stretched out to varying lengths to accommodate the meas-
urer's ideas of correct position. The measurement when
taken should be the distance between uprights from the
worn surface of the hoof or sole of the foot in carnivorous
mammals, to the top of the withers with the foreleg held
straightened but not stretched. If the specimens are in-
tended for mounting, innumerable measurements of value
may be taken of the circumference and thickness of the
body and limbs at various points. The skeleton is, how-
ever, of more value to the taxidermist than any number
of careful measurements and should be preserved if facilities
are available. If it is not possible to preserve the whole
skeleton, the limb bones and pelvis should be collected, for
they alone are of great assistance to the taxidermist in mod-
eling the manikin. The sportsman should at least, in all
cases, preserve the complete skull, for it serves a double pur-
pose. After it has served as a model for the manikin of the
taxidermist, it is of permanent value to the zoologist for
study, and is often absolutely necessary for the determina-
tion of the species. Photographs should also be taken of
the specimen in the flesh as an aid to the taxidermist.
At the present time skulls of several of the large African
mammals are much needed for the determination of the
racial characters of the described subspecies. This is par-
ticularly true of elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and
giraffe. Of all skulls that of the elephant is the rarest in
collections and the most valuable. What is particularly
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 747
desirable are the skulls of specimens with really large tusks
which would show the changes of bone structure which ac-
company gigantic tusk development. The largest skulls at
present preserved in museums possess tusks of considerably
less than two hundred pounds per pair, which are less than
half the weight of record tusks. It is well to bear in mind
that our large mammals are disappearing more rapidly than
the smaller ones, and in the districts where they are now
rare special efforts should be made to obtain and preserve
specimens before their extinction. In order to determine
the characters of the geographical races of a species it is
necessary to have specimens for study from every district
inhabited by the species. Game reserves can only protect
or preserve species in certain limited areas, and we cannot
therefore possibly preserve by such means all the geograph-
ical races of widely distributed species. To carry out such
complete preservation would require the protection of all
the species of game animals throughout their entire ranges,
which is obviously impossible. It should be our especial
purpose to obtain specimens of the species which are disap-
pearing most rapidly, in those districts where they are
already rarest.
The salt method of preservation here described is essen-
tially that of Carl E. Akeley, and was the one employed by
the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction of
Colonel Roosevelt. Owing to the great quantities of salt re-
quired both in dry-salting the skins in the field ^and later in
packing them in barrels for shipment, it is a very expensive
process. To the cost of the salt must be added the much
greater cost of transportation of the skins in the field
due to the added weight of salt. It has great advan-
748 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
tages over other methods wherever quahty is of prime
importance, and in most regions where drying cannot
be resorted to. Salt leaves the skin in all its original
pliability and strength, and is quickly removed by water.
It performs the work of preservation with the minimum of
danger either to the quality of the skin or to the coloration.
The method which has been found most successful in equa-
torial Africa in the preservation of the skins of large mam-
mals concerns itself with the use of salt exclusively. All skins
contain a large per cent of water, which combines with the
other elements in the tissues after death to assist decay.
In order to preserve the skin it is necessary speedily to ex-
tract the moisture which the skin contains. Salt when ap-
plied in a pulverized condition to the dermal side of skins
acts at once upon the moisture in the skin, with which it
unites. Its extreme solubility when in the presence of
moisture allows it to penetrate into the skin through the
pores and unite with the moisture in every part of the tissues.
Salt has no other preservative effect, however, than drying;
that is, it is not an insecticide or a poison to bacteria or
other organisms which destroy skins. It must also be borne
in mind that it is far from stable in its preservative qualities.
As long as salt is in the skin moisture other than salt brine
must be kept away, for there is constant danger of the salt
being extracted by outside moisture, which may thus find
entrance into the skin and cause its decay just as would
have taken place originally had not the salt been present
to extract the moisture and preserve the skin. The suc-
cessful use of salt in preservation depends first upon apply-
ing it to every part of the skin, and second in making its
action universal throughout. In the case of large skins
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 749
paring down, to a thinness which will allow the salt to pene-
trate through the dermal layer to the epidermis and preserve
the hair covering, must be resorted to. The salt method is
simple in application; its success depends chiefly upon eter-
nal vigilance in seeing that it reaches every part of the skin
in its action.
Salt should be applied as soon after the removal of the
skin as is possible. Usually this cannot be done until the
skin reaches camp. Here it is spread out hair side down
and carefully fleshed, all the fatty tissue being removed, as
it forms an impenetrable barrier to salt. Finely pulverized
salt is then spread over the skin in a uniform layer about a
quarter of an inch thick. Skins in which the legs and neck
have not been slit longitudinally will need to be treated by
filling these members with salt, leaving the hair side turned
out. It is then rubbed into the skin to insure its immediate
action, after which the skin is tightly rolled, as smoothly as
its folds will allow. In this state it is allowed to remain
overnight, usually from twelve to twenty-four hours, so as
to give the salt ample time to extract the moisture. At the
end of this time it is unrolled, when it will be found that
most of the salt has been dissolved by the moisture in the
skin which now rests in pools of brine in the folds. This
liquid is then drained off and the skin covered by a fresh layer
of salt, after having been carefully inspected to see that no
spots are left where the action of the salt has not penetrated
and where decay is beginning to take place. Such spots may
usually be detected by their softness, the skin being of a
putty-like consistency, or by the ease with which the hair
may be pulled out. Inspection of this sort of each skin
should be continued daily for a few days until it is certain
750 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
that the salt has entered into every part of the skin tissue,
when it may be left for weeks either rolled up more or less
moist or dried in the shade. Care should be taken with
dried, salted skins not to subject them to the atmospheric
moisture of rainy weather or of moist districts near the coast
or otherwise, as the moisture in the atmosphere is then
often able to extract the salt and cause the skin to decay.
The best plan to follow is to pack the salted skins in barrels
and cover them with brine or, if they have been thoroughly
dried, pack them in tin cases and seal them up so that they
may remain protected from any external moisture. Barrels
for this purpose should be free from oil, grease, or infection
of any sort which may be communicated to the skins.
Packing in this way also prevents the action of skin-eating
beetles or the growth of bacteria or fungi which may
destroy the skins if left exposed.
Salt not being available, the skins may be simply dried
provided the climatic conditions will permit. The skins
should be carefully spread out horizontally, hair side down,
in the shade of trees or of a tent stretched either on poles or
a series of lines, so as to allow free access of the air to both
surfaces. In very dry regions perfect skins may be obtained
by simply pegging the skins out on the ground in the shade,
hair side to the earth. The drying must take place rather
rapidly, that is, within a day or two, otherwise decay will
set in. Drying skins in the sun usually causes them to
decay and slip on the epidermal or hair side and then dry
afterward. Such a dried skin has the appearance of a per-
fectly dried specimen, but its condition is at once evident
upon softening in water by the separation or sloughing of the
hair as well as the epidermal layer. In the preparation of
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 751
dried skins powdered arsenic is of valuable assistance as an
insecticide. It may be applied to the dermal side of the
skin while it is still green, or the skin after being thoroughly-
dried may be dipped into a solution of it and redried. This
last process renders the whole hair surface, as well as the
dermal layer, insect proof.
The use of alum in any form is to be avoided except as a
last resort in decaying skins. The astringent action which
it exerts upon the skin has a killing or hardening effect on
the tissues which remains in them permanently. Such ac-
tion affects seriously their elasticity, and makes it difficult
for the taxidermist to restore them to their natural shape.
Alum is of use occasionally in decaying skins, for its astrin-
gent action is powerful enough to set the hair which decay
has already caused to slip.
As the game trophies of sportsmen consist almost in-
variably of only the head skin and horns, the skinning of the
head is of first importance. Care should be taken to make
all cuts from the under side of the skin so as to avoid cutting
the hair bordering the incisions, particularly about the base
of the horns where the hair is unusually long. The neck
should be cut off at the shoulders, so that it may have
enough length to give it a graceful appearance when
mounted. Make the cut as far back as the withers and the
base of the forelegs. From a point a few inches behind the
horns make a longitudinal cut, following the midline of
the nape to the withers; then connect the neck cut with
both horn bases by a short cut to the back of the horn bases
and continue the cut completely around each horn. Begin
skinning at the base of the neck by pulling the skin forward,
being careful to leave all the fat and skin muscle attached
752 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
to the body, as it is much less difficult to get a clean skin at
once than to flesh it after it has been removed. When the
ears are reached cut the cartilage well down near the bone,
where it is but a mere tube, then continue on forward to the
eyes, where you will need to use some caution so as not to
cut the lids. This may be prevented by cutting the skin
close to the eyeball, using one of your fingers as a guide
thrust into the eye from the outside. Continue on down
to the mouth, cutting the lips off near the base of the gums,
and being careful to cut the nose cartilage well back near
its base so as to avoid cutting into the external nostrils.
After the skin has been cut free of the head, begin by split-
ting the lips and the eyelids as well as the nose cartilage.
The splitting of such fine membranes is made necessary,
owing to the failure of salt to penetrate membranes and to
act only from the inside of tissues. The ears may now be
skinned by turning or pulling the skin toward their tips, at
the same time forcing the cartilage down; continue the
process to the very tip of the ear so as to insure preserva-
tion. It is not necessary usually to skin the cartilage on
the inside as well, unless fat is present, in which case the
salt cannot reach the inside until the cartilage is completely
removed.
In the skinning of the heads of hornless female antelope,
the cut from the base of the skull along the median line of
the nape will not be found necessary in species having nar-
row heads. Never make the cut along the median line of
the throat where it may show when the head is mounted
and where the hair is usually so short that it will at all
events be easy to detect. The heads of large carnivores
can be skinned out from the shoulder cut by reversing the
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 753
skin over the base of the skull, which is very little broader
than the neck. The lips in these animals need particular
care, as they are usually mounted with their mouths open
and should, therefore, be cut far back along the base of
the teeth, which will give them the greatest possible length.
Owing to the refractory nature of the heavy skin of the
hippopotamus, the head skin must be cut down the entire
length of the median ventral side from the chin to the chest.
The rhinoceros head skin should be cut down the median
line of the nape. Giraffe require similar treatment, the cut
here following along the dorsal mane, which occupies the
median line of the nape, and then forking at the horns and
extending up the inside of each of the large horns and across
their tips, as they require skinning to preserve their hair
covering. The head of the elephant offers some exceptions
to the general rule and is the only case, with the exception of
the hippopotamus, in which the cut down the throat is pref-
erable or rather allowable. After making the circular cut
at the withers and shoulders, make a second extending from
the tip of the trunk along the median line of the under side
to the mouth, and through the chin down the midline of the
throat to the chest. The great ears must be especially
treated by a cut on their back or inside extending from the
base or point of insertion back of the auditory meatus to
the extreme tip or angle marking the termination of the
folded upper border. From this longitudinal cut the carti-
lage can be separated from the skin by cutting it free and
then skinning down both surfaces of it as far toward the
ear margin as possible without cutting through the skin
which here is quite thin. When the ear cartilage has been
skinned out as far as possible it should be severed along the
754 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
whole margin and thrown away, as it is of no value in the
the mounting and is very refractory when dried. The head
skins of these four animals — the hippopotamus, rhinoceros,
giraffe, and elephant — require to be pared down at least to
half their original thickness in order to allow the salt to
penetrate through the dermal layer to the epidermis. The
necks of such large animals as buffalo, eland, and oryx also
require a considerable amount of paring to insure preser-
vation.
The skins of antelope and the hoofed mammals generally
can be most conveniently preserved as flat skins. In re-
moving the skin for this purpose a longitudinal cut is made
from the base of the tail forward to the point of the breast,
to which four cuts are joined, one down the inside of each
leg, beginning at the hoof. The cuts for skinning the head
are made as usual on the nape. A further cut is made the
whole length of the tail, following the median line of the
under side. In skinning the body the leg bones are severed
as far down in each hoof as it is possible to reach with the
knife after first severing the bone at the fetlocks. In rhinoc-
eros and hippopotamus the ventral cut must be continued to
the chin, as it is not possible in such thick-skinned animals
to peel the skin off over the head. In giraffe, however, it
will be found necessary only to continue the neck cut along
the dorsal mane to the withers.
If the skins are desired for mounting it is better to make
as few cuts as will answer the purpose of preservation. In
such collecting, case skins may be advantageously made.
In antelope and carnivores the cuts down the legs may be
dispensed with, the leg bones in the case of antelopes being
removed by first skinning down to the hock or knee from the
EQUIPMENT, ARMS, AND SPECIMENS 755
ventral cut and severing the leg and then, by making a short
cut on the back at the fetlocks, the leg bones may be severed
at that point and the skin of the leg stripped back to the
knee or hock, as the case may be, and the bone removed
from below. This method can only be employed where salt
is to be used or where, as in carnivores, the skin can be com-
pletely reversed and dried wrong side out. The method can-
not be used on such thick-skinned mammals as rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, giraffe, and elephant, in which the skin is
too thick to be manipulated. Buffalo and eland are the
limit of its possibilities.
The preservation of the entire skin of the elephant pre-
sents a special case; for, owing to its large size, it cannot be
handled in one piece as is possible in rhinoceros and giraffe.
Cow elephants and small bulls may be conveniently ma-
nipulated by cutting the skins into three sections. The head
is first cut off close behind the skull where the cut is hidden
by the immense ears, and further cuts are made on the ears
and trunk as already described. The body skin is then cut
into halves by a cut extending along the median line of the
whole length of the back from the neck to the tail and con-
tinued on the ventral surface, following the median line of
the belly to the throat. A cut along the inner side of each
leg is then made from the hoof to the median ventral cut.
An additional cut on the under side of the tail is made from
the base to the tip. In very large bull elephants it is found
necessary to again divide each half by a transverse cut ex-
tending midway between the two legs from the dorsal cut
to the ventral. This results in sectioning the elephant's
skin into five pieces.
In the preservation of skulls for scientific purposes great
756 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS
care should be used in guarding them against breakage,
especially such parts as the teeth and the delicate bony
processes which are extremely important structures in their
classification. A strong tendency is manifest among sports-
men to remove as much meat as possible from the skull in
the field so as to minimize the odoriferous effects which
emanate from such dried specimens. The cutting of muscle,
however, from skulls by the rough methods usually employed
by native assistants often results in cutting off the delicate
processes or in scarring the bones by knife cuts. As much of
the meat as can be dried thoroughly on the skull serves as a
protection to the bones, and is in no way a menace to its
preservation. An ideal way of getting rid of the smell and
the insect larvae which feed upon dried meat and bones is to
soak the bones several hours in a solution of arsenic water
after they have become thoroughly dry, and then redry them
for a few hours in the sun. The arsenic not only kills the
insects which are on them at the time, but it prevents further
insect attack. The skulls of the smaller species should be
carefully carried in boxes in the field to prevent their being
knocked about and broken.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST EQUATORIAL AFRICA
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST EQUATORIAL AFRICA
Akeley, Carl E. 1912. Elephant Hunting in Equatorial Africa.
The American Museum Journal, vol. XII, no. 2, pp. 43-62.
An account of elephant hunting in the Budonga forest of Uganda
and on the slopes of Mount Kenia in British East Africa.
Allen, J. A. 1909. Mammals from British East Africa, Collected
by the Tjader Expedition in 1906. Bulletin American Museum of
Natural History, vol. XXVI, pp. 147-175.
A descriptive list of fifty-six species and subspecies of mammals
from the highlands of British East Africa.
Archer, G. F. 1913- Recent Exploration and Survey in the North
of British East Africa. Geographical Journal of London, Nov.,
1913, pp. 421-430, I map.
A general description of the topography of the Marsabit and
Lake Rudolf desert region.
Arkell-Hardwick, a. 1903. An Ivory Trader in North Kenia; the
Record of an Expedition through Kikuyu to Galla-land in East
Equatorial Africa. London, 8vo.
A description of the author's hunting experiences in the Kenia
district and the country traversed by the Northern Guaso Nyiro
River.
Austin, Herbert Henry. 1902. Among the Swamps and Giants of
Equatorial Africa; an Account of Surveys and Adventures in the
Southern Sudan and British East Africa. London, 8vo.
Description of travel in the Soudan, the upper Sobat River, and
from the Nile to Lake Rudolf and southward to Mombasa.
Baker, Samuel W. 1866. The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the
Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources. London, 8vo.
Contains an account of the discovery of the Albert Nyanza.
1874. Ismailia. London, 2 vols., 8vo.
Devoted chiefly to African slave-trade suppression.
1890. Wild Beasts and Their Ways. London, 8vo.
Contains some chapters on African game animals.
759
760 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berger, a. 1910. In Afrikas Wildkammern. Berlin, 8vo.
An account of the writer's hunting experiences in British East
Africa and the Upper Nile, with an appendix by Paul Matschie of
the mammals collected.
Bland-Sutton, J. 191 1. Man and Beast in Eastern Ethiopia; from
Observations made in British East Africa, Uganda, and the Sudan.
London, 8vo.
General observations on the fauna and flora.
Bronson, Edgar B. 1910. In Closed Territory. Chicago, 8vo.
A description of hunting experiences of the writer in British East
Africa.
Buxton, Edward North. 1902. Two African Trips. London, 8vo.
A description of the game fields of British East Africa and the
White Nile.
Chanler, William Astor. 1896. Through Jungle and Desert:
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A description of a trip up the Tana River to Kenia and north-
east down the Northern Guaso Nyiro River to the Lorian
swamp.
Chapman, Abel. 1908. On Safari, Big Game Hunting in British
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An account of the writer's hunting experiences with the game
animals and birds of British East Africa.
Churchill, Winston Spencer. 1908. My African Journey. London,
8vo.
A description of the writer's shooting experiences m British East
Africa and the Upper Nile.
Collie, George L. 1912. The Plateau of British East Africa and
Its Inhabitants. Bulletin American Geographical Society, vol. 44,
pp. 321-334-
Descriptive of the geology and people of British East Africa.
Decken, C. C. von der. i 869-1 879. Reisen in Ost-Afrika in den
Jahren 1859 bis 1865. Leipsic, 4 vols.
A description of the writer's explorations of the upper altitudes
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 761
Delme-Radcliffe, C. 1905. Rough Notes on the Natural History
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Notes on the distribution of game animals in Ankole and south-
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Dickinson, F. A. 1908. Big Game Shooting on the Equator.
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Descriptive chapters devoted to the big-game mammals occurring
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1910. Lake Victoria to Khartoum with Rifle and Camera.
London, 8vo.
A description of a shooting trip taken with Winston Churchill
in the upper Nile region.
Dracopoli, L N. 1913. Across Southern Jubaland to the Lorian
Swamp. Geographical Journal of London, August, 191 3, pp. 128-
143 with I map.
Mainly a geographical and descriptive account of the country
with occasional mention of game animals. Records the Hunter
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known record.
Drake-Brockman, R. E. 1910. Mammals of Somaliland. London, 8vo.
„ A description and accounts of the habits of all the species of mam-
mals known to occur in Somaliland.
DuGMORE, A. Radclyffe. 19 10. Camera Adventures in the African
Wilds; being an Account of a Four Months' Expedition in British
East Africa for the Purpose of Securing Photographs from Life of
the Game. London, 4to.
An account of the author's experiences in photographing the big
game of British East Africa.
Eliot, Charles N. E. 1905. The East African Protectorate.
London, 8vo.
A general description of the country with an historical sketch.
Elliot, G. F. Scott. 1896. A Naturalist in Mid-Africa; being an
Account of a Journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tan-
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A description of the geology, fauna, flora, and peoples of British
East Africa and Uganda.
762 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Emin. 1888. Emin Pasha In Central Africa; being a Collection of
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A collection of Emin's (Edward Schnitzer) letters relating to the
peoples, administration, and natural history of the Nile Province.
Engler, Adolf. 1895. Die Pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der Nach-
bargebiete. Berlin, 4to. 3 vols.
A monographic work on the known species of plants occurring
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FiLiPPi, FiLiPPO DE. 1909. Ruwenzori; an Account of the Expedi-
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A description of the Duke of the Abruzzi's exploration of Ru-
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Fischer, G. A. 1878-1879. Das Mapokomo-Land und Seine Be-
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A description of the lower Tana River and its inhabitants,
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A description of the upland country of German and British East
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Fitzgerald, W. W. A. 1898. Travels in the Coast Lands of British
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Gibbons, A. St. Hilair. 1904. Africa from South to North, Through
Marotseland. London, 8vo. 2 vols.
A description of the writer's journey from the Cape region north
through the lake region and the Nile Valley to Egypt. Contains
an account of the discovery of the white rhinoceros in the Lado
Enclave.
Grant, J. A. 1864. A Walk Across Africa or Domestic Scenes from
my Nile Journal. London, 8vo.
A description of the people and natural history of the country
traversed by Speke and Grant.
1872. Summary of the Observations on the Geography, Climate,
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Gregory, John W. 1896. The Great Rift Valley; being the Narra-
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Devoted chiefly to geology and the exploration of the summit
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The description of a new species of sable antelope obtained near
Mombasa by Kermit Roosevelt as Ozanna roosevelti.
191 2. New Genera and Races of African Ungulates. Smith-
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The description of four new genera: Dolichohippus, Beatragus,
Oreodorcas, and Ammelaphus, and six new races of antelopes from
British East Africa and Uganda.
1913. New Races of Antelopes from British East Africa. Smith-
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New Races of Ungulates and Primates from Equatorial Africa.
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Description of a natural-history exploration from Mombasa to
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764 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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An account of Count Teleki's travels from Mombasa to Lake
Rudolf by way of Kilimanjaro and Kenia, including a description
of the ascent of these two snow-capped volcanoes.
HoLLiSTER, N. 1910. Mammals Collected by John Jay White in
British East Africa. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol.
56, no. 2.
A descriptive list of eighteen species of big-game mammals from
British East Africa, with descriptions of two new species: Oryx
annectens and Ourebia microdon.
HopwooD, Francis J. S. (Lord Hindlip). 1905. East Africa
Protectorate. London, 8vo.
A general account of British East Africa; historical and com-
mercial.
House, Edward J. 1909. A Hunter's Camp Fires. New York,
Svo.
Contains several chapters on big-game shooting in the highlands
of British East Africa.
Jackson, F. J. 1894. Badminton Library, Big Game Shooting,
vol. I. London, 8vo.
Contains several chapters on the habits of the big game of East
Africa and Uganda. This is the most comprehensive account of
the distribution of the game animals of the region extant.
1897. Field-Notes on the Antelopes of the Mau District, British
East Africa. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,
pp. 450-456.
A list of twenty-three species with notes on their distribu-
tion.
Jessen, B. H. 1906. W. N. McMillan's Expeditions and Big Game
Hunting in the Sudan, Abyssinia, and British East Africa. Lon-
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A description of exploration in the unknown parts of southern
Abyssinia and the Soudan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 765
Johnston, Harry H. 1886. The Kilimanjaro Expedition. Lon-
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A description of the ascent of Kilimanjaro, and a summary of
the natural histor}' and the history of its exploration.
1902. The Uganda Protectorate; an Attempt to give some Descrip-
tion of the Physical Geography, Botany, Zoology, Anthropology,
Languages, and History of the Territories under British Protection
in East Central Africa. London, 8vo. 2 vols.
An elaborate general account of the peoples, fauna, and flora of
Uganda and western British East Africa.
191 1. Britain Across the Seas; Africa. London, 8vo.
Contains an historical sketch of British East Africa, Uganda,
and the Soudan.
Johnston, T. Broadworth. 1908. Tramps Round the Mountains
of the Moon, and Through the Back Gate of the Congo State.
London, 8vo.
Descriptive of Uganda, the Ruwenzori Range, and the Congo.
Junker, Wilhelm. 1892. Travels in Africa During the Years 1882-
1886. London, 8vo.
An account of travels in the Bahr-el-Ghazal region and the adja-
cent Congo or Welle River drainage.
Krapf, Ludwig. 1 85 1. Journal seiner Reise nach Ukambani in
1849. Verhandlung der Gesellschaft filr Erdkunde, vol. VIII,
P- 193-
A description of his journey from Mombasa to Kitui and the
discovery of Mount Kenia.
i860. Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors During an
Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa. London, 8vo.
Contains an account of the travels and discoveries in East Africa
made by the author and by his colleague, Rebmann.
Lardner, E. G. Dion. 1912. Soldiering and Sport in Uganda.
London, 8vo.
Litchfield, E. Hubert. 1912. Rhinoceros Hunting; A Sportsman's
Notes. The American Museum Journal, vol. XH, pp. 94-99.
A description of some game animals shot in British East
Africa.
766 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lloyd, Albert B. 1906. Uganda to Khartoum; Life and Adventure
on the Upper Nile. New York, 8vo.
General descriptive matter on Uganda and the Soudan.
LoNNBERG, EiNAR. 1908. Mammals Collected by the Swedish
Zoological Expedition to Kilimanjaro during 1905-1906. Heraus-
gegeben von der Konigl. Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschajten,
Upsala.
A description of a collection of mammals from Kilimanjaro.
1912. Mammals Collected by the Swedish Zoological Expedition
to British East Africa. Kunglich Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens
Handlingar, band 48, no. 5.
A description of the specimens obtained in the watershed of the
Northern Guaso Nyiro River.
LuGARD, Captain F. D. 1893. The Rise of Our East African Em-
pire; Early Efforts in Nyasaland and Uganda. London, 8vo.
2 vols.
A description of British East Africa and Uganda.
Lydekker, Richard. 1893. Horns and Hoofs, or Chapters on
Hoofed Animals. London, 8vo.
Descriptions of the species comprised in the families of the Suidcs,
Cervidce, Bovida, and Rhinocerotidce.
1904. On the Subspecies of Giraffa camelopardalis. Proceedings
of the Zoological Society, vol. I, pp. 202-297.
The writer splits the giraffe into ten geographical forms, based
chiefly upon slight differences in coloration.
1907. The Ears as a Race Character in the African Elephant.
Proceedings of the Zoological Society, pp. 380-403.
Twelve subspecies or geographical races of can elephants are
recognized in this paper, based mainly upon differences of outline
assigned to ears.
1908. The Game Animals of Africa. London, 8vo.
Brief descriptions and notes on all the game mammals described
from Africa.
MacDonald, Jas. R. L. 1897. Soldiering and Surveying in British
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MacQueen, Peter. 1910. In Wildest Africa; the Record of a Hunt-
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 767
Kilimanjaro Region and British East Africa; with an Account of
the Ascent of the Snow Fields of Mount Kibo, etc. London, 8vo.
An account of the adventures of the writer in East Africa and
Uganda.
Madeira, Percy C. 1909. Hunting in East Africa. Philadelphia, 8vo.
An account of the writer's hunting experiences in British East
Africa.
Matschie, Paul. 1895. Saugethiere Deutsch-Ost-Afrikas und der
Nachbargebiete. Berlin, 8vo.
Descriptions of all the species of mammals known in 1895 ^o in-
habit German East Africa and the region immediately bordering it.
1900. Ueber Geographische Abarten des Afrikanischen Elefanten.
Sitzungs-Berichten der Gesellschaft naiurjorschender freunde, Berlin,
no. 8, pp. 189-197.
The writer splits the African elephant into four geographical
races to which he gives subspecific names.
1906. Einige noch nicht Beschriebene Arten des Afrikanischen
Biiffels. Sitzungs-Berichten der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde,
Berlin, no. 7, pp. 161-179.
The author recognizes fifteen geographical races of African
buffaloes to which he assigns distinctive horn characters.
McCuTCHEON, John T. 1910. In Africa; Hunting Adventures in the
Big Game Country. Chicago, 8vo.
A humorous portrayal of a hunting trip in British East Africa.
Melland, F. H., and Cholmeley, E. H. 1912. Through the Heart
of Africa; Being an Account of a Journey from Northern Rhodesia
to Egypt. London, 8vo.
Chiefly an Jnographical account; some chapters devoted to
elephant hunting near the Albert Nyanza and in Masindi.
Meyer, Hans. 1891. Across East African Glaciers. London, 4to.
A monographic account of the topographical features of Mount
Kilimanjaro with some reference to the fauna and flora.
Muff, H. Brantwood. 1908. Report Relating to the Geology of the
East African Protectorate. Colonial Reports, Miscellaneous, no. 45.
A general account of the geological structure of British East
Africa.
768 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Neumann, Arthur H. 1898. Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial
Africa. London, 8vo.
An account of a trip from Mombasa to Mount Kenia and north-
ward to Lake Rudolf with special reference to the big game. An
excellent account of the game animals.
1899. Great and Small Game of Africa. London, 4to.
Descriptions and illustrations of all the larger game animals;
British East African species described by A. H. Neumann.
Neumann, Oscar. 1900. Die von mir in den Jahren 1 892-1 895 in
Ost und Central Afrika, speciell in den Massai-Landern und den
Landern am Victoria Nyanza gesammelten und beobachteten
Saugethiere. Zoologischen Jahrbuchern, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 529-
562.
A complete list of the mammals collected and observed by the
writer with notes on their habits and distribution.
New, Charles. 1873. Life, Wanderings, and Labors in East Africa;
with an Account of the First Successful Ascent of the Equatorial
Snow Mountain Kilima Njaro and Remarks upon East African
Slavery.
NiEDiECK, Paul. 1909. With Rifle in Five Continents. London,
8vo.
Contains a description of the author's shooting experiences in the
Eastern Soudan.
OsBORN, Henry Fairfield. 1910. The Age of Mammals in Europe,
Asia, and North America. New York, 8vo.
Contains references to the Tertiary mammals of North Africa
and the theories regarding their derivation.
Oswald, F. 1913. The Miocene Beds of the'Victoria Nyanza. Jour-
nal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society, vol. HI,
no. 6, pp. 2-8.
The writer records fossil remains of Dinotherium, Aceratherium
(a hornless rhinoceros), and other extinct types of mammals.
Patterson, J. H. 1908. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo; and other East
African Adventures. London, 8vo.
A detailed account of the exploits of the man-eating lions infest-
ing the low country during the construction of the Uganda railway.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 769
1909. In the Grip of the Nyika; further Adventures in British
East Africa. New York, 8vo.
A description of a journey from Nairobi to Mount Marsabit by
way of the Northern Guaso Nyiro River.
Peters, Carl, 1891. New Light on Dark Africa; being the Narra-
tive of the German Emin Pasha Expedition; its Journeyings and
Adventures among the Native Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa,
the Gallas, Massais, Wasukuma, on the Lake Baringo, and the
Victoria Nyanza. New York, 8vo.
The description of a military expedition up the course of the
Tana River to Lake Baringo and thence to Mount Elgon and
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Portal, Gerald. 1894. The British Mission to Uganda in 1893.
London, 8vo.
Powell-Cotton, P. H. G. 1904. In Unknown Africa; a Narrative of
Twenty Months' Travel and Sport in Unknown Lands and among
New Tribes. London, 8vo.
Devoted chiefly to hunting exploits on Mount Elgon and the
country north and west of it to the Nile.
Rainey, Paul J. 191 1. The Royal Sport of Hounding Lions.
The Outing Magazine, New York, vol. LIX, no. 2, November,
pp. 131-152.
An account of lion hunting with foxhounds in the highlands of
British East Africa.
Rainsford, W. S. 1909. The Land of the Lion. London, 8vo.
An account of the writer's hunting experiences in British East
Africa.
Rebmann, John. 1849. Journal d'un Excursion au Djagga, les Pays
des Neiges de I'Afrique Orientale. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages,
vol. II, pp. 257-300.
A description of the discovery of Kilimanjaro.
Rhoads, Samuel N. 1896. Mammals Collected by Dr. A. Donaldson
Smith During his Expedition to Lake Rudolf, Africa. Proceedings
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, pp. 517-546.
A descriptive list of the seventy-seven species comprising the
collection, twenty-five of which are big-game animals.
770 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Roosevelt, Theodore. 1910. African Game Trails; an Account of
the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist. New
York, 8vo.
A description of a hunting trip through the game fields of British
East Africa, Uganda, and the upper Nile.
Schillings, C. G. 1905. With Flashlight and Rifle. New York,
8vo.
An account of the writer's experiences in photographing the
game animals at night, with numerous illustrations of flashlight
photographs.
1907. In Wildest Africa; a Translation of Der Zauber des Ele-
lescho. London, 8vo.
An account of the writer's photographic experiences among the
game animals of the Nyika and Masailand of the Kilimanjaro region
of German East Africa.
ScHWEiNFURTH, Georg. 1 873. The Heart of Africa: Three Years'
Travel and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central
Africa, from 1 868-1 87 1. London, 8vo. 2 vols.
Description of the Bahr-el-Ghazal region with some references
to the flora and fauna.
ScLATER, P. L. 1864. On the Mammals Collected and Observed by
Captain J. H. Speke During the East African Expedition. Pro^
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A description of the thirty-nine species obtained by Speke and
Grant, most of which were antelopes or other big game.
1 894-1900. (Sclater, p. L., and Thomas, Oldfield.) Book of
Antelopes. London, 4to. 4 vols.
Full account with descriptions and synonymy of the known
species, accompanied by a colored plate of each species.
Scull, Guy H. 1911. Lassoing Wild Animals in Africa. New
York, 8vo.
Describes the lassoing exploits of a party of American cow-
boys in British East Africa under the direction of Colonel C. J.
Jones.
Sheldon, Mary French. 1892. Sultan to Sultan; Adventures
Among the Masai and Other Tribes of East Africa. Boston, 8vo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 771
Smith, A. Donaldson. 1897. Through Unknown African Coun-
tries; the First Expedition from SomaHland to Lake Lamu. New
York, 8vo.
The description of a trip of adventure from Somahland westward
to Lake Rudolf and then eastward down the Tana River to Lamu.
1900. An Expedition between Lake Rudolf and the Nile.
Geographical Journal, pp. 600-625.
An account of the tribes and game met with in the country be-
tween the north end of Lake Rudolf and Fort Berkeley on the Nile.
Speke, John Hannington. 1863. Journey of the Discovery of the
Nile. London, 8vo.
The first account of the journey of discovery of Speke and Grant
to the source of the Nile. Devoted mainly to a description of the
negro tribes inhabiting Uganda and the incidents of travel.
Stanley, H. M. 1878. Through the Dark Continent; or the Sources
of the Nile; Around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and Down
the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean. New York, 8vo.
2 vols.
A description of an expedition through German East Africa, the
circumnavigation of the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika and the
journey down the Congo River.
1890. In Darkest Africa or the Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of
Emin. London, 8vo. 2 vols.
Contains a description of Uganda, the exploration of the Albert
Nyanza and the lower slopes of the Ruwenzori Range.
Stigand, C. H. 1909. "The Game of British East Africa." London,
4to.
An account of the habits and haunts of the game animals of
British East Africa and Uganda.
1910. To Abyssinia Through an Unknown Land; an Account
of a Journey Through Unexplored Regions of British East Africa
by Lake Rudolf to the Kingdom of Menelek. London, 8vo.
The description of the trip concerns itself chiefly with the people
and the natural features of the country traversed.
1913. The Land of Zinj; being an account of British East Africa,
its Ancient History and Present Inhabitants. London, 8vo.
An ethnological and historical treatise.
772 BIBLIOGRAPHY
191 3. Hunting the Elephant in Africa; and other Recollections
of Thirteen Years' Wanderings. New York, 8vo.
A miscellaneous collection of incidents and descriptions pertaining
to east equatorial Africa.
Stuhlmann, Franz. 1894. Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika.
Berlin, 4to.
Contains a description of explorations in Uganda and of the
Alpine region of the Ruwenzori Range.
Sutherland, James. 1912. Adventures of an Elephant Hunter.
London, 8vo.
A detailed account of elephant hunting in western and southern
German East Africa and in Nyasaland.
Sykes, C. a. 1903. Service and Sport on the Tropical Nile; some
Records of the Duties and Diversions of an Officer Among Natives
and Big Game During the Reoccupation of the Nilotic Province.
London, 8vo.
Chiefly a record of the author's shooting experiences in the
Soudan.
Thomas, Oldfield. 1890. On a Collection of Mammals Obtained
by Doctor Emin Pasha in Central and Eastern Africa. Proceed-
ings of the Zoological Society of London, pp. 443-450.
A list of nineteen species of mammals, chiefly rodents and in-
sectivores.
1892. On Two New Central African Antelopes Obtained by Mr.
F. J. Jackson. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series
6, vol. XI, p. 385.
Description of the white-bearded wildebeest, Connochcetes albo-
jubatus, and Jackson's hartebeest, Bubalis jacksoni.
1902. On the East African Representative of the Bongo and Its
Generic Position. Annals and Magazine of Natural History,
series 7, vol. X., p. 309.
The description of the bongo as a new genus and the East African
form as a new race, Boocercus eurycerus isaaci, based upon specimens
sent to the British Museum by Mr. F. W. Isaac.
1904. On Hylochcerus, the Forest Pig of Central Africa. Pro-
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A description of a new genus and species of forest pig, Hylochoe-
rus minertzhageni, from the specimens sent to the British Museum
by Lieutenant R. Minertzhagen from British East Africa.
1910. Ruwenzori Expedition Reports. Mammals by Oldfield
Thomas and R. C. Wroughton. Transactions of the Zoological So-
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An account of the natural-history collections obtained by the
British Museum expedition to Ruwenzori in 1905-1906.
Thomson, Joseph. 1885. Through Masai-Land: a Journey of Ex-
ploration Among the Snowclad Volcanic Mountains and Strange
Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa. London, 8vo.
A description of the writer's journey from Mombasa to Lakes
Naivasha and Baringo, thence westward to Mount Elgon and the
Victoria Nyanza.
TjADER, Richard. 1910. The Big Game of Africa. New York, 8vo.
Devoted to the author's hunting experiences in the highlands of
British East Africa.
Treves, Frederick. 1910. Uganda for a Holiday. London, 8vo.
Descriptive of Uganda.
True, F. W. 1890. An Annotated Catalogue of the Mammals Col-
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Africa. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, vol. XV, pp.
445-480.
A descriptive list of forty-nine species of mammals, seventeen of
which are big-game mammals.
Tucker, A. R. 1908. Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa.
London, 8vo. 2 vols.
A history of the growth of Christian missions in Uganda.
Wallace, Harold Frank. 1908. Stalks Abroad; Being Some Ac-
count of the Sport Obtained During a Two Years' Tour of the
World. London, 8vo.
Contains several chapters on the big-game mammals of British
East Africa.
Ward, Rowland, i 892-1910. Records of Big Game and Measure-
ments of Horns. London, 8vo; 6 editions.
A brief description of the game animals of the world with measure-
ments of their horns, weight of body, etc.
774 BIBLIOGRAPHY
White, Stewart Edward. 191 2. The Land of Footprints. New
York, 8vo.
An account of the writer's shooting experiences in British East
Africa.
1913. African Camp Fires. New York, i2mo.
A description of hunting incidents in British East Africa.
WiLLOUGHBY, J. C. 1 889. East Africa and Its Big Game; the Nar-
rative of a Sporting Trip from Zanzibar to the Borders of the
Masai. London, 8vo.
A description of the shooting expeditions of the author, Sir
Robert G. Harvey, and H. C. V. Hunter. This is the earliest ac-
count devoted solely to the game animals of East Africa.
Wilson, H. A. 1913. A British Borderland; Service and Sport in
Equatoria. London, 8vo.
WoLLASTON, A. F. R. 1908. From Ruwenzori to the Congo: a Natu-
ralist's Journey Across Africa. London, 8vo.
A narrative description of the journey made by the British
Museum expedition to the Ruwenzori Range.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution made public, Febru-
ary 15, 1913, the list of those who contributed to the fund covering the
expenses of the Smithsonian African expedition under the leadership of
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. This list is not complete, as it only con-
tains the names of those persons who were willing that the Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution should make public their names.
In a statement issued by the Secretary it is stated that up to Febru-
ary, 1913, Mr. Roosevelt did not know who the contributors were, with
the exception of Andrew Carnegie, and possibly one or two personal
friends.
The list includes the names of Edward D. Adams of New York,
former Secretary Robert Bacon of Boston, Cornelius N. Bliss of New
York, James Campbell of Saint Louis, W. Bayard Cutting of New York,
Andrew Carnegie of New York, Cleveland H. Dodge of New York, E. H.
Gary of New York, John Hays Hammond of Washington, H. L. Higgin-
son of Boston, Hennen Jennings of Washington, J. S. Kennedy of New
York, Ralph King of Cleveland, former Secretary George L. von Meyer
of Washington, D. O. Mills of New York, former Secretary T. H. New-
berry of Michigan, L. L. Nunn of Provo, Utah, H. C. Perkins of Wash-
ington, Henry Phipps of New York, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid of New York,
Elihu Root of New York, J. C. Rosengarten of Philadelphia, Jacob H.
SchifFof New York, Isaac N. Seligman of New York, O. M. Stafford of
Cleveland, former Secretary Oscar S. Straus of New York, and Isidor
Straus of New York.
From the contributions the Smithsonian's three-fifths share of all
the expenses were paid; the other two-fifths were paid by Colonel
Roosevelt, which covered all his personal expenses and those of his son,
and their proportionate two-fifths share of the total expenses of the
expedition.
The following is the complete list of the collections made by the
expedition that have been received by the institution:
777
778 APPENDIX
Specimens
Mammals 5,013
Birds 4'453
Birds' eggs and nests 131
Reptiles and batrachians 2,322
Fish 447
Plants 5'i35
Insects 3>5oo
Shells 1,500
Miscellaneous invertebrates 650
Total 23,151
As a result of this expedition the biological collections now in the
National Museum from East Africa are probably the most complete of
any in the world.
Considerable interest is being taken by the public in relation to the
disposition of the collections made by the Smithsonian African expedi-
tion under the leadership of Colonel Roosevelt. The collections, when
received, were distributed to the various departments of the National
Museum to which they pertained — the birds were sent to the bird de-
partment, the mammals to the mammal department, the plants to
the botanical department, and so on.
A number of groups of the large mammals have been prepared, and a
number of individual specimens mounted for exhibition purposes. The
greater portion of the specimens have been placed in the study series,
and the duplicates will be distributed by exchange or otherwise. The
groups of large mammals now mounted are on exhibition in the new
museum mammal hall.
INDEX
INDEX
Abbott, Dr. W. L., 9, 33, 274, 346,
347, 369- 488, 506, 530, 532, 554,
596, 602.
Abbott duiker, 532.
Abruzzi, Duke of the, 239.
Abyssinian bush pig, 275.
Grant gazelle, 595.
oribi, 558.
Acacias, 35, 36.
Acacia fistula, 43.
mellifera, 40, 41, 611.
stenocarpa, 39, 41, 44.
tortilis, 40, 41.
verugosa, 40, 44.
Acanthus, 32, 39.
arboreus, 48.
Acinonyx, 242.
jubatus raineyi, 248.
jubatus soemmcringii, 249.
jubatus velox, 246.
Acocanthera abyssinica, 43, 47.
Adansonia digitata, 40.
Adenota, 508.
kob, 509.
kob alurce, 512; map, 517.
kob leucotis, 514; map, 517.
kob thomasi, 510; map, 517.
celiani, Phacochoerus africanus, 284.
Mpyceros, 614.
melatnpiis suara, 615; map,
619.
(Equatoria, Ourebia montana, 559.
(Bquatorialis, Cephalophus monticola,
534-
aquinoctialis, Syncerus caffcr, 418.
African buffaloes, 405.
Afzclia cuanzensis, 39.
Akeley, Carl E., 76, 180, 209, 223,
235, 308, 551, 734, 735, 736, 747;
bibliog., 759.
Mrs., 209.
akeley i, Nesotragus moschatus, 551.
Albinism, 59; in Grevy zebra, 706;
partial in highland quagga zebra,
689.
Albizzia, 39.
fasti gala, 43, 47.
albojubatus, Gorgon, 361.
Gorgon albojubatus, 369.
albonota, Gazella rufifrons, 608.
Alchemilla, 542.
argyrophylla, 50, 539.
Allen, Dr. J. A., 431,632; bibliog., 759.
Aloe, 40.
Alpine bush duiker, 542.
Alpine zone, character of vegetation,
52, 53-
altivallis, Sylvicapra grimmia, 542.
alurce, Adenota kob, 512.
Ammelaphus, 444.
imberbis australis, 445; map, 447.
amphibius. Hippopotamus amphibius,
297.
Andrews, Dr. C. W., 711.
Ankole reedbuck, 488.
spotted hyena, 264.
annectens. Oryx beisa, 339.
Antelope, desert pygmy; coloration,
552, 554; measurements, 554;
range, 552.
Hunter; coloration, 360; descrip-
tion, 388, 389; history, 359;
measurements, 360; range, 359;
10.
Kenia pygmy; coloration, 551,
552; habits, 551; range, 551.
Kilimanjaro pygmy; description,
554; range, 554.
pygmy; description, 549, 550;
Moschatus, key to races of, 550.
roan; Equinus, key to, 327; de-
scription, 327; habits, 328,
329; range, 327, 328.
sable, 15, 327.
781
782
INDEX
Antelope, Zanzibar pygmy; descrip-
tion, 550, 551; history, 550; range,
550-
Antelopes, sable and roan, 326.
Antilopince; description, 579; key to
genera, 580.
Appendix, list of contributors to
Smithsonian African expedition
fund, 777.
Archer, G. F., bibliog., 759.
Arkell-Hardwick, A., bibliog., 759.
Arms, 744.
Ariindinaria alpina, 32, 49.
Athi bush duiker, 544.
white-bearded wildebeest, 369.
aureus, Oreotragus orcotragus, 574.
Austin, Herbert Henry, bibliog., 759.
ausiralis, Ammclaphus imberbis, 445.
Avicennia officinalis, 38.
Baker, Sir Samuel, 4, 75, 83, 332, 351,
418, 496, S14; bibliog., 759.
bakeri, Egoceros equinus, 332, 5.
Bangs, Outram, 108.
Bauhinia reticulata, 39.
bea, Strepsiceros strepsiceros, 449.
Beatragus hunteri, 359, 8; map, 373.
beisa. Oryx, 338.
Berger, Dr. A., 75, 255; bibliog.,
760.
hergeri, Hycena hycena, 255.
Bergson, 55.
Betton, C. S., 267.
Bibliography of equatorial East Af-
rica, 759 to 774.
bicornis, Dicer os bicornis, 651.
Birds; effect of brilliantly colored
plumage, 94, 95; how approached
by foes, 93; value of coloration, 96,
143, 144; needless slaughter of, 157.
Blackburn, Dr. E., 278.
Black rhinoceros, 7, 639.
Black-snouted Thomson gazelle, 602.
Blaine, Gilbert, 359, 488, 558, 588.
Bland-Sutton, J., bibliog., 760.
Blankctt, 2.
Blue duiker, 533.
Blumenbach, 715, 716.
Blyth, Edward, 418, 445.
Boardman, Col. Sargeant, 460.
Bohm, Dr. Richard, 352, 615, 620,
693-
bohmi, Equus quagga, 693.
Bongo, East African; characters, 454,
455; coloration, 455; habits, 454,
455; history, 452; measurements,
456, 458; range, 452, 105; map
457-
Bongo, West African, 11; map, 457.
Bonte-quagga or quagga zebra, 676.
Boocercus, 452.
eurycerus eurycerus, map, 457.
eurycerus isaaci, 452; map, 457.
bor, Tragelaphus scriptus, 437.
Boswcllia, 41.
Bottego, Captain, 530.
Boutroux, 55, 67.
Bovidce, diagram showing affinities of,
323; key to, 324, 325.
BovincE, 404, 405.
BrachylcEua, 47.
brighti Gazella granti, 594.
Bright Grant gazelle, 594.
Bright, Major, 594.
Brindled wildebeest, 360.
British East Africa Company, 11.
Bronson, Edgar B., bibliog., 760.
Brooke, Sir Victor, 610.
Broom, 20.
Bruguicra gymnorrhiza, 38.
Bubalince; description, 348; key to,
349.
Bubalis, 374.
cokci, 390.
cokei cokei, 391; map, 395.
cokci kongoni, 392; map, 395.
cokei nakurce, 394; map, 395.
cokei neumanni, 396; map, 395.
lelwel, 397.
lelwel insignis, 400, 11; map,
401.
lelwel jacksoni, 402, 11; map,
401.
lelwel kenice, 403; map, 401.
lelwel lelwel, 398; map, 401.
lehvel nicdiecki, map, 401.
lelwel roosevelti, 399; map, 401.
Buffalo, 118.
INDEX
783
Buffalo, East African; characters, 415,
416; horn shape, 415; variation, 415,
416; coloration, 416; history, 415;
range, 415, 417, 418; map, 419.
Buffalo Jones, 204, 209, 320, 363, 383.
Buffalo, Nile; characters, 418; history,
418; measurements, 420; range, 418,
420; map, 419.
Buffaloes, African; characters, 405,
406; habits, 407 to 414; herons, 409,
410; history, 406; key to races of
cafer, 414; nomenclature, 405.
bufo, Phacochoerus africanus, 2S6.
Burchell, 265.
Burton, 3.
Bushbuck; coloration, 426, 427; habits,
427, 428, 429; key to, 430; range,
426, 106.
highland; coloration, 43 1,43 2; his-
tory, 430, 431; measurements,
433; range, 430; map, 439.
Masai; coloration, 433; history,
433, 14; map, 439.
Nile; characters, 437; coloration,
437, 438; history, 437; mea-
surements, 438; range, 437, 5;
map, 439.
Swahili; coloration, 434, 435;
measurements, 43 5; range, 434;
map, 439.
Uganda; coloration, 436; history,
436; measurements, 436, 437;
range, 435, 436, 13; map, 439.
Bush duikers, 537.
Bush pig; history, 271, 272, 273; races,
273; key to, 273.
Abyssinian; history, 275; range,
275; measurements, 276.
East African; coloration, 274;
habits, 274; measurements,
274; range, 273.
Butler, A. L., 460, 496.
Buxton, Edward North, 150; bibliog.,
760.
Cabrera, 264, 352.
callotis, Oryx bcisa, 346.
Camera, value of, 159.
Camerano, 697.
CanldcB, 264, 265.
Cape elephant, 715.
Carissa, 43.
Cassia didymohotrya, 44.
Cats, spotted, range, 113.
Cavendish, H. S. H., 632.
cavendishi, Rhynchotragus kirki, 632.
CephalophincE, 527.
Cephalophns, 528.
monticola, 533.
monticola (Equator talis, 534.
monticola hecki, 536.
monticola musculoides, 535.
natalensis, 529.
natalensis harveyi, 530.
natalensis ignifer, 530.
natalensis johnstoni, 53 1 .
spadix, 532.
Ceratotherium, 659.
simiimcottoni, 660; map, 671.
simum simum, map, 671.
chanleri, Orcodorcas Jidvorufula, 479,
12.
Chanler rock reedbuck, 479.
Chanler, William Astor, 12, 480, 646,
702; bibliog., 760.
Chapman, Abel, 364; bibliog., 760.
Chat; black, 108; white, 109.
Cheetah; general description, 242 to
24s; key to race, 246; 113.
highland; characters, 246; colora-
tion, 246, 247; measurements,
247; range, 246, 248.
Rainey African; coloration, 248,
249; measurements, 249; range,
248, 249.
Soudan; history, 249; range 249.
Cholmeley, E. H., and Melland, F. H.,
bibliog., 767.
Chrysophyllum, 48.
chui, Felis pardus, 239.
Churchill, Winston Spencer, bibliog.,
760.
Coast blue duiker, 536.
hartebeest, 391.
oribi, 562.
Coke, Colonel, 391.
Coke hartebeest, 390.
cokei, Biihalis, 390.
784
INDEX
cokei, Bubalis cokei, 391.
Collie, George L., bibliog., 760.
Collins, "Bimbashi," 460.
Colobus, black and white, 7, 128, 129.
Coloration; effect of climate, 126, 128,
138; exceptions, 127; effect on
animals of the same species, 59;
effect on environment, 72; effect of
sunlight, 82, 84; effect of twilight
and night, 92; difference as to pur-
pose, 58; experiments in, 64, 137;
importance of study, 97; impor-
tance of habits over coloration, 114,
115, 124, 145, 146; surroundings in
relation to coloration, 98; habits,
importance of, 137; prevalence of
monochrome over striped forms,
125; recognition marks, horns, etc.,
58; sexual purposes, 59; stripes,
effect of, 7 1 ; theories as to purpose,
62; value of, in cat family, 117;
value of, at drinking-places, 73, 74,
75; why valueless, 64, 83, 100; un-
importance of, in American game,
118.
Combreium, 39, 43.
Commiphora, 40, 41.
Common waterbuck, 7, 502.
Conophryngia, 48.
Coolidge, 182.
Cope, 56, 128.
Corydon, Major, 258, 259.
coHoni, Giraffa camelopardalis, 14.
Ourehia moniana, 14, 560.
Redunca redunca, 486.
Cougar; range, 116; coloration, 116;
invisibility, 116, 117.
Countershading; disappearance of, 86;
effect on other animals, 93, 94, 139;
examples of, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91; value
of, 87, 96.
Crocula, 256.
crocuta fisi, 263.
crocula germinans, 261.
crocuta thomasi, 264.
Crolon ellioUianus, 43, 47.
Cuninghame, R. J., 209, 309, 371,
372, 588, 696, 729; letter from, 729,
730, 731. 732.
cuninghamei, Equus quagga, 694.
Cusonia spicata, 47.
Cuvier, 712.
dcemonis, Potamochosrus koiropotamus,
273-
dama, Tragelaphus scriptus, 13, 435.
Damaliscus, 20, 349.
Damaliscus, equatorial; description,
350; key to, 350.
Damaliscus korrigiim, 350.
korrigumjimela, 351; map, 357.
korrigiim Hang, 350; map, 357.
Damaliscus, tiang; characters, 351;
range, 351.
topi; coloration, 352, 354, 355,
356; habits, 354, 355; history,
353; measurements, 356, 358;
range, 351, 352, 353, 358.
Darwinism, how accepted, 55.
Decken, C. C. von der, 6, 391; bib-
liog., 760.
Decoys; ducks, 65; fish, 65; ostrich,
66, 67.
Deer; axis, 120, 121; blacktail, 119;
fallow, 119, 120, 121; red, 121;
whitetail, 119, 121, 145.
defassa, Kobiis, 491.
Defassa, Laikipia; description, 500;
range, 500.
waterbuck, 491.
Delamere, Lord, 13, 14, 76, 180, 187,
209, 232, 260, 279, 287, 430, 432,
453, 740.
delamerei, Phacocha'rus, 14, 287.
Tragelaphus scriptus, 14, 430.
Delme-Radcliffe, C, 415, 689; bib-
liog., 761.
Demidoff, Prince, 460.
Desert bushbuck, 14.
bush duiker, 544.
pygmy antelope, 552.
Desert striped hyena, 263.
wart-hog, 287.
deserti, Sylvicapra grimmia, 544.
dcserticola, Nesotragus moschatus, 552.
Dewar, 56, 61, 62.
DeWinton, 304, 688.
Diccros, 639.
INDEX
785
Diceros bicornis bicornis,6si ', map, 657.
bicornis somaliensis, 656; map,
657.
Dickinson, Captain F. A., 500; bib-
liog., 761.
Dikdik, description, 622, 623.
Kirk; range, 627; characters, 627,
628; key to races, 628.
large-snouted; range, 627; his-
tory, 627; characters, 626;
coloration, 626, 627; measure-
ments, 627; map, 625.
Naivasha Kirk; range, 632; his-
tory, 632; characters, 632;
measurements, 634; map, 633.
Northern Kirk; range, 629; his-
tory, 629; coloration, 629;
measurements, 629; map, 633.
Nyika Kirk; range, 630; colora-
tion, 630; measurements, 630;
map, 633.
typical Kirk; range, 628; history,
628; characters, 628, 629;
map, 633.
Ukamba Kirk; range, 631; his-
tory, 631; albinism, 631; colo-
ration, 631; measurements,
632; map, 633.
Dinotherium, 20, 21.
Dolichohippus ; range, 700; difference
between Grevy and quagga, 698,
699, 700.
grevyi, 700; map, 707.
Dodonea viscosa, 43.
Dombeya nairobiensis, 42, 722.
Doum-palms, 39, 40, 41.
DraccBua, 47.
Dracopoli, I. N., bibliog., 761.
Drake-Brockman, R. E., bibliog., 761.
Drinking-places, methods of approach,
75-
Drummond, 429.
Duben, Baron von, 550.
Du Chaillu, 452, 453.
Dugmore, A. Radclyffe, 76; bibliog.,
761.
Duiker, Abbott; characters, 533; color-
ation, 533; history, 532; measure-
ments, 533; range, 532.
Duiker, Alpine bush; coloration, 542;
habits, 542; measurements, 542;
range, 542; map, 545.
Athi bush; description, 544;
range, 544; map, 545.
blue; description, 533, 534; key
to races of monticola, 534.
bush; characters, 537; coloration,
537; habits, 537, 538, 539; key
to races, 539; range, 537.
coast blue; description, 536.
desert bush; coloration, 544,546;
range, 544; map, 545.
forest; description, 528; key to
species of, 529; 9.
highland red; description, 531;
history, 531; range, 530.
Kilimanjaro red; description,
530; history, 530; range, 530.
Nandi blue; coloration, 535, 536;
measurements, 536; range, 535,
536.
Nile bush; coloration, 540, 541;
history, 540; measurements,
541; range, 539, 540; m^p, 545.
red forest; description, 529; key
to races, 529; 9, 11.
Uganda blue; description, 534;
range, 534.
Uganda bush; history, 541; mea-
surements, 541, 542; range,
541; map, 545.
Uganda red; description, 532;
range, 531, 532.
yellow-backed, West African, 9.
Duikers, 106, 107.
description, 527, 528; key to
genera, 528.
East African buffalo, 415.
bush pig, 273.
eland, 467.
forest hog, 278.
greater koodoo, 449.
hippopotamus, 297.
hunting dog, 267.
leopard, 236.
lesser koodoo, 445.
lion, 222.
roan, 329.
786
INDEX
East African wart-hog, 284.
Eastern spotted hyena, 261.
EgocerincE ; key to genera, 325; de-
scription of, 325.
Egoceros ; nomenclature, 326; key to
species, 327; characters, 326, 327;
coloration, 326; range, 326.
equinus, 327.
eqidnus bakeri, 332; map, 337.
equinus langheldi, 329; map, 337.
nigerroosevelli, 15, 333; map, 337.
Eland; description, 458; key to, 459.
East African; characters, 473,
476; coloration, 473, 474;
habits, 468, 469,470,471, 472;
history, 467; measurements,
467, 466; range, 466, 467; map,
475-
giant; characters, 460, 461, 466;
coloration, 462, 463, 464, 466;
habits, 461, 462; history, 460;
measurements, 466, 467; range,
459,460; 5; map, 465.
Elephant, African; difference between
Africanandlndian,7i2, 713,714,715.
Cape or East African; range,
640, 715, 738, 741; history,
715, 716; habits, 718, 719, 720,
721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726,
727; hunting, experiences in,
726, 727; danger of, 727, 728;
coloration, 732; measurements,
734, 735, 736, 737; map, 739.
ElephantidcB, 709.
Elephants, characters; trunk, 709;
skull, 710; teeth, 710, 711; fossil
remains, 711.
Elephas, present range of genus, 712.
imperator, size of, 714.
meridionalis, size of, 714.
primigenius, size of tusks, 737.
Eliot, Charles N. E., bibliog., 761.
Elliott, G. F. Scott, bibliog., 761.
clllpsiprymnus, Kobus, 502.
Emin Pasha, 6, 351, 418; bibliog., 762.
Enccphalarlos hildcbrandti, 40.
Engler, Adolf, bibliog., 762.
Equatorial damaliscus, 350.
impalla, 614.
Equatorial kob, 509.
Equidce ; description, 673, 674, 675;
key to genera of, 675.
equinus, Egoceros, 327.
Equipment, camping and collecting, 743.
Equus, 675.
Equus quagga, 676.
qiiagga bohmi, 693; map, 795.
quagga cuninghanici, 694 ; map,
795-
quagga gratiti, 687; map, 795.
Erythrina tomcntosa, 39.
Eugenia cor data, 44.
Euphorbia candelabrum, 40, 41.
nyikce, 40, 41.
Euphorbias, 35, 36, 41.
Fauna; derivation, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24; present distribution, 25, 26, 27,
28, 30; definition, 126.
Faunal areas; description and bound-
aries, 25; map, 24; Abyssinian des-
ert, map, 24;Bahr el Ghazal, map,
24; East African, map, 24; East
Nile, map, 24; Uganda, map, 24;
West Nile, map, 24.
Felis leo, 162.
Ico chui, 239.
leo massaica, 222; map, 227.
leo nyanzcB, 226; map, 227.
leo roosevelti, map, 227.
pardus, 229.
pardus Jortis, 241.
pardus ruwcnzorii, 238.
pardus suahelica, 236.
Ficus mallocarpa, 48.
stuhlmanni, 44.
Filippi, Filippo dc, bibliog., 762.
Finn, 56, 61, 62.
fisi, Cr acuta cr acuta, 263.
Fischer, Dr. G. A., 7, 8, 506, 554, 599;
bibliog., 762.
Fitzgerald, W. W. A., bJ/)liog., 762.
Fitzinger, 5, 249, 520.
Five-horned giraffe, 10.
Fleischman, 641.
Flora; derivation, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24; present distribution, 25, 26, 27,
28, 29, 30.
INDEX
787
Forests; location, 44, 45, 46; char-
acter, 45; soil, 45.
Forest duiker, 9.
hog; characters, 277; history, 105,
276, 277.
hog. East African; coloration,
279; habits, 280; history, 278,
279; measurements, 279, 280;
range, 278, 280.
leopard, 238.
fortis, Felis pardus, 241.
Fraas, 20.
Franco, Leo, 460.
Frick, Childs, 313.
Fringe-eared oryx, 9.
Game laws, necessity of, 158.
Game preserves; value of, 149; dis-
crimination necessary, 150, 151.
Gazella, 580.
granti, 5, 581.
granti hrighti, 594; map, 597.
granti granti, 588; map, 597.
granli noiata, 595; map, 597.
granti raineyi, 592; map, 597.
granti robertsi, 588; map, 597.
granti roosevelti, 590; map, 597.
granti serengetcB, 596; map, 597.
petersi, 598; map, 597.
rufifrons albonota, 608.
ihomsoni, 599.
thomsoni nasalis, 602; map, 607.
thomsoni thomsoni, 601; map,
607.
Gazelle, Abyssinian Grant; history,
595 ; range, 595.
black-snouted Thomson; color-
ation, 605; history, 602; habits,
603, 604, 605; measurements,
606; range, 602.
Bright Grant; history, 594;
range, 594.
coloration, 580; key to species,
581; range, 580.
Grant ; general description,
species, and races, 581, 582;
habits, 583; key to species, 587,
588; range, 5, 581.
Grant notata, 13.
Gazelle, Kilimanjaro Thomson; his-
tory, 601; characters, 602; range,
601.
Peters; characters, 599; history,
599; range, 7, 598.
Rainey Grant; coloration, 593;
measurements, 594; range, 592.
Roberts Grant; characters, 588;
history, 588; measurements,
588; range, 588.
Roosevelt Grant; coloration, 590,
591, 592; measurements, 593;
range, 590.
Serengeti Grant; characters, 598;
coloration, 596, 598; history,
596; range, 596.
Thomson; black band, 104;
action in hiding, 8, 107, 108.
Thomson; characters, 599, 600;
key to races of, 601 ; range, 600.
Typical Grant; history, 588;
range, 588.
Uganda red-fronted; coloration,
608; history, 608; range, 608.
Gedge, 441.
Geologic formation, 17, 18, 19.
Gerenuk; coloration, 611, 612; habits,
610, 611; history, 610; measure-
ments, 612; range, 8, 81, 610, 612;
map, 613.
gerniinans, Crocuta crocuta, 261.
Giant eland, 5, 459.
Gibbons, A. St. Hilair, 14, 662, 663;
bibliog., 762.
Gidley, 423, 424.
gigas, Taurotragus derhianus, 459.
Girajfa, 302.
camclopardalis reticulata, 304;
map, 319.
camelopardalis rothschildi, 10,
314; map, 319.
camelopardalis tippelskircki, 316;
map, 319.
Giraffe; affecting color concealment,
83, 84; coloration minor features,
84.
five-horned, 10.
Masai; habits, 318, 320; history,
317; measurements, 320; range,
788
INDEX
316; specimens, difference in,
317; coloration of, 317, 318;
map, 319.
Giraffe, reticulated; animals, associa-
tion, 311, 313; coloration, 305,
312; habits, 306, 307, 308, 309;
hunting experiences, 309, 310, 311;
history, 304, 305; measurements,
313; 13; map, 319.
Uganda; characters, 314, 315;
coloration, 315, 316; history,
315; measurements, 316; range,
314, 316; map, 319-
Giraffidce, general description, 301, 302.
Goldfinch, G. H., 689.
Gordon, 7.
Gorgon, 360.
albojubatus, 361.
albojubalus albojubatus, 369; map,
373-
albojubatus mearnsi, 370; map,
373-
Grant, Colonel J. A., 3, 4, 5, 6, 267,
330, 369, 391, 415, 436, 441, 467,
496, 510, 56s, 581, 588, 652, 615,
662, 688; bibliog., 762.
gazelle, 581.
granii, Equus quagga, 687.
Gazella, 5, 581.
Gazella granii, 588.
Gray, G. E., 5, 333, 5i9, 520.
Greater koodoo, 8, 448.
Gregory, John W., 13, 84, 688; bib-
liog., 763-
Grevy, President, 700.
zebra, 700; map, 707.
grevyi, Dolicfiohippus, 700.
Grewia, 40.
populifolia, 41.
Grey, George, 193, 194; death of by
lion, 194 to 203, 453.
Grogan, E. S., 734.
Groundsels, 51.
Guaso Nyiro, Northern, 12.
Giinthcr, Dr., 8, 391, 628.
Haeckel, 55.
Hagcnia anthelminlica, 49.
Haggard, Vice-Consul, 562.
haggardi, Ourebia monlana, 562.
Harnier, Baron Wilhelm, 495.
harnicri, Kobus defassa, 495.
Haronga, 45.
Hartebeest, coast; coloration, 391;
history, 391; range, 391, 392;
measurements, 392; map, 395.
Coke; characters, 390; key to
races, 391; range, 390.
description, 374; habits, 377 to
382, 384 to 389; key to
species, 390; range, 59, 375,
376, 377-
Heuglin lelwel; characters, 398;
history, 398; measurements,
399; range, 398; map, 401.
Jackson lelwel; coloration, 402;
history, 402; measurements,
402; range, 402; discovery, 11;
map, 401.
Kenia lelwel; characters, 403;
measurements, 403 ; range, 403 ;
map, 401.
Kongoni; coloration, 392, 393;
history, 392; measurements,
393; range, 392; map, 395.
lelwel; description, 397; key to,
5, 15, 398.
Nakuru; history, 394; measure-
ments, 396; range, 394, 396;
map, 395.
Neumann; history, 397; mea-
surements, 397; range, 10,396;
map, 395.
Roosevelt lelwel; coloration, 399;
history, 399; measurements,
399, 400; range, 399; map, 401.
Uganda lelwel; characters, 400;
history, 400; measurements,
401, 402; range, 400; map, 401.
Harvey, Sir Robert, 8, 352, 530, 562.
harveyi, Cephalophns natalcnsis, 530.
hassama, Polamoc/iwrus koiropolamus,
275-
Haynes, Captain, 460.
Headlam, Captain H. R., 460.
Heatley, 408, 409, 412.
Heck, Dr., 536.
hecki, Cephalophns rnonticola, 536.
INDEX
789
Eeliochrysum, 51.
Heller, Edmund, bibliog., 763.
Heuglin lelwel hartebeest, 398.
Martin Theodore, 5, 6, 250, 267,
27s, 332, 351, 398, 418, 437,
460, 496, 514, 520, 540, 559;
bibliog., 763.
Highland bushbuck, 431.
cheetah, 246.
leopard, 241.
red duiker, 530.
reedbuck, 485.
quagga zebra, 687.
striped hyena, 254.
waterbuck, 502.
Hildebrandt, J. M., 7, 369, 506;
bibliog., 763.
Hill, Harold, 182, 193, 194.
Hinde, Dr. S. L., 544, 631, 655.
hindei, Rhynchotragus kirki, 631.
Sylvicapra grimmia, 544.
Hippopotamus; general description,
289, 290; amphibius, key to races,
290, 291; characters, 292; habits,
292 to 2-96; history, 291; range,
292.
amphibius amphibius, 297.
amphibius kiboko, 298.
Hippopotamus, East African; char-
acters, 298, 299; coloration, 299;
measurements, 299, 300; range,
298, 300.
Nile; range, 297, 298.
Hodgson, 75, 405.
Hohnel, Ludwig von, 9, 12, 646, 656;
bibliog., 764.
HoUister, N., 223, 339, 560; bibliog.,
764.
Holm wood, 653.
Hopwood, Francis J. S. (Lord Hind-
lip), bibliog., 764.
Hornaday, William T., 89, 112, 150,
154-
House, Edward J., bibliog., 764.
Huerta, 352.
Hunter, H. C. V., 8, 352, 359, 360,
392, 562, 612.
antelope, 10, 359; map, 373.
hunteri, Beatragus, 8, 359; map, 373.
Hunting dog; general description,
265, 266; habits, 266; range, 266.
East African; coloration, 267, 268;
habits, 267; history, 267; meas-
urements, 268, 269; range, 267.
Hurlburt, Reverend Mr., 647.
Huxley, 56.
Hycena, 253.
hycena bergeri, 255.
hycena schillingsi, 254.
Hycenida;, 251, 252.
Hyena, Ankole spotted, description,
264.
desert striped; coloration, 255,
256; measurements, 256; range,
255-
Eastern spotted; coloration, 262;
history, 261; measurements,
262; range, 261.
highland striped; coloration, 255;
measurements, 255; range, 254.
Marsabit spotted; coloration, 263,
264; range, 263.
spotted; difference between Cro-
cula and Hycena, 256, 257;
key to Crocuta, 261; habits,
257 to 260; range, 256.
striped; general description, 253;
habits, 253 ; key to races of, 254.
Hylochcerus, 276.
minertzhageni, 278.
Hypericum lanceolatum, 50.
Hyphcene coriacea, 40, 41.
Ibea, 10.
Ibean beisa oryx, 339.
ignifer, Cephalophus natalensis, 530.
Impalla, description, 7, 614.
equatorial; coloration, 615, 616;
habits, 617, 618, 620; history,
615; measurements, 616, 617;
range, 615, 620; map, 619.
insignis, Bubalis lelwel, 11, 400.
Isaac, district commissioner, 11, 453.
isaaci, Boocercus eurycerus, 452.
Jackson, F. J., 10, 11, 66, 333, 346,
352, 369, 400, 402, 445, 449, 452,
472, 476, 485, 498, 506, 530, 536,
790
INDEX
560, 562, 565, 576, 602, 612, 620;
bibliog., 764.
Jackson lelwel hartebeest, 11, 402.
jacksoni, Bubalis lelwel, 11, 402.
Jaguar, 115.
Jcssen, B. H., bibliog., 764.
jimeld, Damaliscus korrigiim, 351.
Johnston, Harry H., g, 10, 150, 264,
315, 532; bibliog., 765.
Johnston, T. Broadworth, bibliog.,
765-
johnstoni, Cephalophiis natalensis, 531.
Jones, Buffalo, 204, 209, 320, 363,
383-
"Jumbo," body size, 735.
Juniperus procera, 47, 48.
Junker, Dr. Wilhelm, 332; bibliog.,
765-
Kaup, 495.
Kearton, 84, 112.
Kemp, Robin, 536.
Kenia, 9.
lelwel hartebeest, 403.
oribi, 15, 561.
pygmy antelope, 551.
kenia;, Bubalis lelwel, 403.
kenyce, Ourebia montana, 15, 561.
kiboko, Hippopotamus amphibius,
298.
Kigelia ethiopica, 43.
Kilimanjaro, 6, 9.
pygmy antelope, 554.
quagga zebra, 693.
red duiker, 530.
Thomson gazelle, 601.
kirchenpaueri, Nesoiragus moschatus,
554-
Kirk, Sir John, 333, 334, 351, 352,
44S> 53°, 536, 55°, 610, 628.
dikdik, 627.
kirki, Rhynchotragus, 627.
Rhynchotragus kirki, 628.
Kirkpatrick, Major H. J., 359.
Klein, Alfred J., 279.
Klipspringer; characters, 571, 572;
habits, 572, 573, 574; key to races
of, 574, 107.
Klipspringer, Marsabit; characters,
574; coloration, 574; measurements,
575; range, 574, 575; map, 577.
Masailand; measurements, 578;
range, 576, 578; map, 577.
Knottnerus-Meyer, 600.
Knowles, district commissioner, 417,
437, 532.
kob, Adeuota, 509.
Kob; description, 508; range, 508.
equatorial; description, 509; key
to races, 509; range, 509.
Lado; characters, 513; colora-
tion, 513, 514; measurements,
514; range, 512; map, 517.
Uganda; coloration, 511, 512;
habits, 510; history, 510; mea-
surements, 512; range, 510;
map, 517.
white-eared; characters, 514; col-
oration, 515, 516, 518; habits,
514, 515; history, 514; mea-
surements, 516; range, 514;
60; map, 517.
KohincB, 478; key to genera, 478.
Kobus, 490.
dcfassa, 491.
dcfassa harnieri, ^gy, map, 501.
defassa niatschici, 497; map, 501.
defassa nzoicB, 498; map, 501.
defassa raineyi, 498; map, 501. •
defassa tjaderi, 500; map, 501.
defassa Uganda;, 496; map, 501.
ellipsiprymnus, 502; map, 507.
ellipsiprymnus kiiru, 506; map,
507-
ellipsipryynnus thikce, 502; map,
507-
maria, 5.
Kolb, Dr., 649.
kongoni, Bubalis cokei, 392.
Kongoni hartebeest, 392.
Koodoo, East African greater; colora-
tion, 449, 450; habits, 449; history,
449; measurements, 450, 452; range,
449, 450; map, 451.
East African lesser; coloration,
446; habits, 445, 446; history,
445; measurements, 448; range,
445; map, 447.
INDEX
791
Koodoo, greater; description, 448, 449;
8.
lesser; description, 444, 445; 8.
lesser, Somaliland, 81.
korrigum, Damaliscus, 350.
Krapf, Ludwig, 2, 3; bibliog., 765.
Kuhnert, 693.
kuru, Kobus ellipsiprymniis, 506.
Lado kob, 512.
Lake Rudolf, 9, 12.
Stefanie, 9.
Lang, Herbert, 632.
Langheld, Captain, 330.
langheldi, Egoceros equinus, 329.
Lardner, E. G. Dion, bibliog., 765.
Large-snouted dikdik, 627.
Latreille, 256.
Lechwi; characters, 519; history, 519;
range, 519.
Nile, 520; coloration, 523, 524,
526; habits, 521, 522; measure-
ments, 526; history, 520, 521;
range, 519, 520; map, 525.
white-withered (see Nile), 5, 60,
519-
lelwel, Bubalis lelwel, 5, 15, 398.
Lelwel hartebeest, 397.
leo, Fells ; key to races of, 222; color-
ation, 171, 172, 173; general intro-
duction, 161, 162; danger from, 183
to 186; habits, 164 to 171, 173 to
183; hunting, methods of, 187 to
193, 205; lassoing, 210; spearing,
210; with dogs, 211 to 217; with
traps, 215 to 220, 222; races, differ-
ences in regard to, 162, 163, 164;
coloration of, 163; range, 163, 164;
skull, 164; marksmanship, impor-
tance of, 209; rifles, 204.
Leopard, East African; characters,
237; coloration, 237; history, 236,
237; measurements, 238; range, 236,
237-
(Felis pardiis) ; coloration, 230,
231 ; comparison between forms,
229, 230; key to races, 236;
habits, 232, 233, 23s; man-
eating, 235; range, 229.
Leopard, forest; coloration, 240; his-
tory, 239; range, 238.
habits of concealment, 114.
highland; characters, 241; color-
ation,241 ; measurements, skull,
241, 242; range, 241.
Nile; characters, 239, 240; color-
ation, 240; measurements, 240;
range, 239.
Lesser koodoo, 8, 444; Somaliland, 81.
leucotls, Adenota kob, 514.
Lichtenstein, 514.
Life zones; description and definition,
28; map, 24; Congo, map, 24; des-
ert nyika, map, 24; highland forest,
map, 24; highland veldt, map, 24;
tropical coast, map, 24.
Limnotragus, 440.
selousl, map, 443.
spekel, 5, 440; map, 443.
spekei gratus, map, 443.
Linnaeus, 291, 297, 700.
Lion, Abyssinian, map, 227.
coloration of young as index to
ancestral forms, in, 112; value
of coloration, 103; value of
coloration in mane, in.
East African; charactrs, 223;
coloration, 223, 224; measure-
ments, 225; range, 13, 222;
map, 227.
Uganda; coloration, 226, 228; his-
tory, 226; measurements, skulls,
228; range, 226; map, 227.
Litchfield, E. Hubert, bibliog., 765.
Lithocranius, description, 609, 610.
wallerl, 610; map, 613.
Lloyd, Albert B., bibliog., 766.
Lobelia gregoriana, 51.
telekii, 51.
Loder, Sir E. G., 736.
Loita white-bearded wildebeest, 369.
Lololokui, Mount, 221.
Lonchitls pubescens, 47.
Long-snouted dikdik, 623.
Lonnberg, Einar, 223, 256, 261, 287,
288, 500, 503, 531, 602, 621, 626,
629; bibliog., 766.
Lorian swamp, 12, 477, 702, 706.
792
INDEX
Loring, J. A., i88.
Loveless, 204, 209, 320, 383.
Loxodonta, 712.
africana afncana, map, 739.
africana cyclotis, shape of ears,
716.
africana oxyotis, shape of ears,
716; map, 739.
africana pumilio, history of type
specimen, 717.
Lugard, Captain F. D., bibliog., 766.
lupinus, Lycaon pictus, 267.
Lycaon, 265.
pictus lupinus, 267.
Lydekker, Richard, 76, 314, 315, 317,
352, 372, 398, 418, 467, 477, 516,
656, 662, 667, 691; bibUog., 766.
Macaranga kilimanjarica, ^"j.
McAtee, W. L., 57, 62.
McCutcheon, John T., bibliog., 767.
MacDonald, Jas. R. L., bibliog., 766.
McMillan, Wm. N., 332, 346, 412,
559, 692.
McMillan, Mrs., 209.
MacQueen, Peter, bibliog., 766, 767.
Madeira, Percy C, bibliog., 767.
Major, Doctor Forsyth, 273, 274, 275.
Mammoth, size of tusks, 737.
Mangabey, 7.
maria, Kobus, 5.
Marsabit klipspringer, 574.
Masai bushbuck, 433.
giraffe, 316.
Masailand steinbok, 565.
massaica, Felis leo, 222.
massaicus, Tragelaphus scriptus, 433.
^lastodon, geologic range, 714.
Matschie, Doctor Paul, 224, 254, 255,
261, 317, 330, 352, 415, 497, 498,
503, 516, 534, 565, 615, 620, 693,
701, 716, 717; bibliog., 767.
tnatschiei, Kobus dcfassa, 497.
Means, 204, 209, 320, 383.
Mcarns, Doctor E. A., 371, 418.
mearnsi, Gorgon albojubatus, 370.
Measurements of specimens in the
flesh, 745.
Megaceros, Onotragus, 5, 519.
Melanism, 59.
Melland, F. H., and Cholmeley, E.
H., bibliog., 767.
Menelik, King, 700, 701.
Merriam, Doctor C. Hart, 140, 423.
Meyer, Hans, bibliog., 767.
Meyer, von, 223.
Millais, 617.
Minertzhagen, Lieutenant, 14, 276,
278, 561.
minertzhageni, Hylochcvrus, 15, 278.
minor, Rhynchotragus kirki, 629.
montana, Ourcbia montana, 558.
monticola, Ccphalophiis, 533.
Morris, Reverend W., 274.
moschalus, Nesotragus moschatus,
550-
Mount Lololokui, 221.
Movement, effect on vision, 99.
Mrs. Gray's waterbuck, 5.
Muff, H. Brantwood, 17; bibliog.,
767.
Murie, Doctor, 495.
Musa ensele, 45.
musculo ides, Cephalophus monticola,
535-
Naivasha Kirk dikdik, 632.
nakurce, Bubalis cokei, 394.
Nandi blue duiker, 535.
nasalis, Gazella Ihoynsoni, 602.
natalcnsis, Cephalophus, 529.
Natural selection; belief in, 56, 57;
limit of, 138, 139; unimportance of,
147.
Nelson, E. W., 61.
Ncsotragincc, 546, 547; key to genera,
547-
Nesotragus, 549.
Nesotragus moschatus akclcyi, 551;
map, 553.
moschatus dcserticola, 552; map,
553-
moschatus kirchenpaueri, 554;
map, 553.
moschatus moschatus, 550.
Neumann, Arthur H., 12, 13, 305,
313, 339, 396, 403, 497, 595, 702,
706, 735; bibliog., 768.
INDEX
793
Neumann, Oscar, 12, 13, 223, 236,
237, 330, 433, 480, 510, 541, 565,
588, 602, 610, 576, 496, 497, 436,
369, 689; bibliog., 768.
neumanni, Bubalis cokei, 13, 396.
Raphicerus campcstris, 13, 565.
New, Charles, bibliog., 768.
Newland, Tarlton & Co., Ltd., 743.
Niedieck, Paul, 420, 727; bibliog., 768.
Nile buffalo, 418.
bushbuck, 427.
bush duiker, 539.
defassa waterbuck, 495.
hippopotamus, 297.
lechwi, 520.
leopard, 239.
reedbuck, 486.
roan, 332.
wart-hog, 286.
white rhinoceros, 660.
Noack, 224.
Northern Guaso Nyiro, 12.
Northern Kirk dikdik, 629.
notata, Gazella granii, 595.
notata Grant gazelle, 13, 595.
nyayiscB, Sylvicapra grimtnia, 541.
nyanzcB, Felis leo, 226.
Nyika; rainfall, 39; location, 39; veg-
etation, 39, 40.
Nyika Kirk dikdik, 630.
nyikcB, Rhynchotragus kirki, 630.
'Nzoia defassa waterbuck, 498.
nzoice, Kohtis defassa, 498.
Observations; value of clearness, 79,
80; mistakes easily made, 80; num-
ber made, 131, 132; value of, 159.
Ocotea usafttbariensis, 48.
Ogilby, 452.
Oka chrysophylla, 47.
laurijolia, 47, 48, 49.
olivaceus, Tragelaphtis scriptiis, 434.
Olivier, Lieutenant-Colonel, 81.
Onotragiis, 519.
lechwi, map, 525.
megaceros, 5; map, 525.
Oreodorcas, 479.
Julvorujula chanleri, 12, 479;
map, 481.
Oreotragince, 571.
Oreolragus, 571.
oreolragus aureus, 574; map, 577.
oreolragus schillingsi, 576; map,
577-
Oribi, Abyssinian; characters, 558,
559; history, 558; range, 558; map,
563-
characters, 555; coloration, 555;
habits, 556, 557; key to races
of, 557, 558; range, 8, 15, 555.
coast; coloration, 562, 564; his-
tory, 562; measurements, 564;
range, 562; map, 563.
Kenia; description, 561, 562;
range, 561; map, 563.
Nile; coloration, 559, 560; his-
tory, 559; measurements, 560;
range, 559; map, 563.
Uasin Gishu; characters, 560;
history, 560; measurements,
560; range, 560; map, 563.
Oryx heisa; description, 338; key to
species, 339.
heisa anneclens, 339; map, 345.
beisa callotis, 346; map, 345.
Oryx, fringe-eared; coloration, 346;
history, 346; measurements, 346,
347; range, 346, 347; map, 345; 9.
Ibean beisa; coloration, 342, 343,
344; habits, 339, 340, 341, 342;
history, 339; measurements,
344; range, 339, 346; map, 345.
Osborn, Henry Fairfield; derivation
of African mammals, 23; bibliog.,
768.
Osman, Doctor C. H., 655.
Ostrich; habits of brooding, 103, 104;
coloration, 104.
Oswald, F., 638; bibliog., 768.
Ourebia, 555.
Ourebia montana cequatoria, 558; map,
563-
montana cottoni, 560; map, 563.
montana haggardi, 562; map,
563-
montana kenyce, 561, 15; map,
563-
montana montana, 558; map, 563.
794
INDEX
Oustalet, 700.
Oxytenanthera abyssinica, 32.
Pallas, 483.
Papyrus, 44.
pardiis, Felis, 229.
Patterson, Colonel J. H., 76, 177, 178,
467; bibliog., 768, 769.
pattersonianus, Taiirotragus oryx, 467.
Pease, Sir Alfred, 193, 194, 209, 233;
letters from, 194, 631.
Percival, A. Blayney, 182, 2)2>2>i 689,
706.
Peters, Carl, bibliog., 769.
Peters, Doctor Wilhelm, 514, 599.
Peters gazelle, 7, 598.
petersi, Gazella, 598.
Petherick, 418.
Phacochcerus, 281.
africaniis celiani, 284.
africanus bufo, 286.
delamerei, 14, 287.
Pigott, 174.
Pigs (SuidcB), 270; key to genera, 271.
Plains; soil, 43; character, 43.
Pocock, 430, 701.
Podocarpiis gracilior, 43, 47.
milanjiana, 47, 48, 49.
Portal, Gerald, bibliog., 769.
Potamochcerus, 271.
koiropotamiis dmnonis, 273.
koiropotamiis hassama, 275.
Potocki, Count, 656.
Poulton, Professor, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64,
126; theory as to minute observance,
64, 65; why valueless, 67, 68.
Powell-Cotton, 10, 14, 297, 315, 316,
400, 420, 485, 498, 503, 541, 558,
560, 658, 662, 670, 672. 734, 736;
bibliog., 769.
Preservation of skins, 744.
Preservation of skulls, 746, 755.
Prongbuck, 61, 64, 118, 138.
Puma, 115.
Pycraft, 99, 120, 122, 123, 126.
Pygmy antelope, 549; map, 553.
quagga, Equus, 676; map, 795.
Quagga zebra or bonte-quagga, 676.
radclijfei, Syncerus cafer, 415.
Rainey, Paul J., 76, 180, 187, 209,
235, 267, 330, 403, 417, 500, 592,
658, 738; bibliog., 769.
Rainey African cheetah, 248.
defassa waterbuck, 498.
Grant gazelle, 592.
raineyi, Acinonyx jubatus, 248.
Gazella granti, 592.
Kobus defassa, 498.
Rainsford, W. S., 505; bibliog., 769.
Raphia, 44.
Raphicerus, 564.
campestris neumanni, 13, 565;
map, 569.
Rebmann, John, 2; bibliog., 769.
Red Forest duiker, 9, 11, 528.
Redunca, 482.
redunca bohor, map, 489.
redunca cotloni, 486; map, 489.
redunca tohi, 487; map, 489.
redunca ugandce, 488; map, 489.
redunca wardl, 485; map, 489.
Reedbuck, 482; map, 489; characters,
483; coloration, 483; habits, 484,
485; history, 483; key to races, 106.
Ankole, 488; range, 488; map,
489.
highland; coloration, 486; history,
485; measurements, 486; range,
485; map, 489.
Nile; characters, 486, 487; color-
ation, 487; history, 486; mea-
surements, 487; range, 486;
map, 489.
rock; description, 12, 479; map,
4S1.
Swahili; characters, 487; colora-
tion, 487; habits, 487; history,
487; measurements, 488; range,
487; map, 489.
Reighard, 95.
reticulata, Girafa camelopardalis, 13,
304-
Reticulated giraffe, 304.
Rhinoceros, black; range, 640; habits,
641 to 646, 650; hunting, 647, 648,
649; key to races, 650; 7; map,
657-
INDEX
795
Rhinoceros; characters, 635, 636, 637;
extinct forms, 637, 638; key to liv-
ing genera in Africa, 638, 639.
description, 7, 14, 659, 660.
Nile white; range, 660, 661, 663,
664; history, 662; habits, 664,
665, 666; characters, 667, 668;
coloration, 670; table of flesh
measurements, 669; measure-
ments, 670; map, 671.
Somali black; range, 656; history,
656; characters, 658; color-
ation, 658; measurements, 658;
map, 657.
typical black; range, 651; charac-
ters, 652, 653, 654; history,
652; nomenclature, 653; color-
ation, 653; measurements, 654,
655.
Rhinocerolidce, 635.
Rhizophora mucronata, 38.
Rhoads, Samuel N., bibliog., 769.
Rhynchotragince, 622, 623.
Rhynchotragus, 623.
guenthcri smilhi, 626; map, 625.
kirki, 627.
kirki cavendishi, 632; map, 633.
kirki hindei, 631; map, 633.
kirki minor, 629; map, 633.
kirki nyikce, 630; map, 633.
Ridgway, R., 689.
Roan antelope, 326.
Roan, East African; coloration, 330,
331; history, 330; measurements,
331, 332; map, 337.
Nile; coloration, 332; history,
332; measurements, 333; range,
332; s; map, 337.
sable, and oryx; introduction,
321, 322, 323; map, 337.
Roberts, F. Russel, 588.
Grant gazelle, 588.
robertsi, Gazella granti, 588,
Rock reedbuck, Chanler; coloration,
480. 482; habits, 480; history, 480;
measurements, 481; range, 479; map,
481.
Roosevelt Grant gazelle, 590.
Roosevelt, Kermit, 187, 193, 258, 315,
316, 318, 329, 333, 334, 396, 417,
441, 442, 449, 452, 453, 456, 460,
464, 505, 576, 648, 655, 662, 665,
670, 726, 744.
Roosevelt lelwel hartebeest, 399.
sable, 33S-
Roosevelt, Theodore, bibliog., 770.
rooscvelti, Bubalis lelwel, 399.
Egoceros niger, 15, :iS3'
Gazella granti, 590.
Sylvicapra grimmia, 539.
Rothschild, Walter, 315, 394, 396, 460,
480, 486, 608.
Riihiis, 48.
Rudolf defassa waterbuck, 497.
Rudolf, Lake, 9, 12.
Rijppell, Edward, 275, 284, 491, 558.
Ruwenzori, 10, 15.
ruwenzorii, Felis pardus, 238.
Sable, Roosevelt, 333; map, 337; col-
oration, 334, 335, 336; history, iii'y
measurements, 336; range, 333.
Sable and roan antelopes, 326.
Sable antelopes, 15, 327.
Salt method of skin preservation,
747-
Salvadora persica, 611.
Sambur, 112, 121.
Samburu quagga zebra, 694.
Sanderson, 719.
Sansevieria, 40.
Sayer, 430.
SchilHngs, C. G., 150, 76, 254, 312,
576; bibliog., 770.
schillingsi, Oreotragus oreotragus, 576.
Hyccna hycena, 254.
Schweinfurth, Doctor Georg, 6, 106,
250, 267, 332, 351, 398, 418, 437,
460, 540, 559, 496; bibliog., 770.
Scientific expeditions; value of, 151;
petitions against African, Roosevelt,
152, 153; attacks on, 152.
Sclater, L., 11, 24, 81, 359, 369, 441,
453, 510, 519, 533, 610, 460; bib-
liog., 770.
Scott, 20.
Scott-Eliot, 400.
scriptiis, Tragelaphus, 426.
796
INDEX
Scull, Guy H., bibliog., 770.
Selous, F. C, 79, 84, 92, 162, 209, 412,
460, 477, 521, 663, 735, 738.
Senecio keniensis, 51.
serengetce, Gazella granti, 596.
Serengeti Grant gazelle, 596.
Seton, E. Thompson, 61, 99.
Sheldon, Charles, 78; value of field
observations, 78.
Sheldon, Mary French, bibliog., 770.
Sitatunga, 5, 440.
Uganda; coloration, 442, 444;
habits, 441, 442; history, 440;
measurements, 444; range, 440;
map, 443.
Skinner, Doctor Henry, 135.
Skinning elephants, cuts necessary,
755-
Skinning heads of large game, method,
751-
Skunk, spotted, 140, 141, 142.
Smith, A. Donaldson, 12, 81, 180,
305, 314, 396, 483, 487, 497, 594,
608, 612, 626; bibliog., 771.
smithi, Rhynchotragus guent fieri, 626.
socmmcringii, Acinonyx jubatus, 249.
Solatium campylacanthum, 528, 611.
Somali black rhinoceros, 656.
somaliensis, Diccros bicornis, 656.
Soudan cheetah, 249.
spadix, Ccphalophus, 9, 532.
Sparrman, 483.
Spathodea, 45.
Specimens; measurements, 745, 746;
preservation of, methods, 747;
mounting of heads, 751, 752, 753;
number secured by Smithsonian
African expedition, 778; prepara-
tion of skins, 754, 755; skulls,
preservation of, 756.
Speke, John Hannington, 3, 4, 5, 6,
267, 330, 369, 391, 415, 436, 441,
467, 496, 510, 565, 581, 588, 615,
652, 662; bibliog., 771.
spekci, Limnotragus, 5, 440.
Spotted hyena, 256.
Stanley, H. M., 4, 6, 652, 662; bib-
liog., 771.
Stefanie, Lake, 9.
Stegodon ganesa, size of tusks, 737.
Steinbok, 13, 564, 565; range, 107,
108, no, 145, 565.
Masailand; coloration, 568, 570;
history, 565; habits, 566, 567,
568; measurements, 570; range,
565, 570; map, 569.
Stevenson-Hamilton, Major J., 429.
Stigand, C. H., 84, 209, 377, 378,
521; bibliog., 771, 772.
Stobc kilimandcharica, 50.
Stone, Witmer, 96, 117.
Strepsiceros, 448.
strepsiccros bea, 449; map, 451.
Striped hyena, 253.
Stuhlmann, Doctor Franz, 534; bib-
liog., 772.
suahelica, Felis pardus, 236.
suara, /Epyccros melampus, 615.
Sutherland, James, bibliog., 772.
Swahili bushbuck, 434.
reedbuck, 487.
waterbuck, 506.
Swamp, Lorian, 12, 477, 702, 706.
Swayne, Captain, 656.
Sykes, C. A., bibliog., 772.
Sylvicapra, 537.
grimmia abyssinica, map, 545.
grimmia altivallis, 542; map, 545.
grimmia dcserti, 544; map, 545.
grimmia hindei, 544; map, 545.
grimmia nyansce, 541; map, 545.
grimmia roosevelti, 539; map, 545.
Syncerus, 405.
cafcr aquinoctialis, 418; map,
419.
cajjcr radclijfci, 415; map, 419.
Tapirs, American, 122, 123; Malayan,
122, 123.
Tarconanthus camphoratus, 43.
Tarlton, 205, 209, 188; letter from,
206, 207, 208.
Taurolragus, 458.
derbianus dcrbianus, map, 465.
dcrbianus gigas, 439; map, 465.
oryxpatter5onianus,^6-] -ynvdY), ^-j $.
Teleki, Count, 9, 12, 449, 620, 646,
656, 702, 740.
INDEX
797
Temminck, 265.
Thayer, Abbott, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64,
69, 70, 72, 73, 77, 78, 93, 95, io9,
115, 126, 136; theory as to colora-
tion, 64, 65; experiments in, 69, 70,
71, 72, 73, 78; value of observations,
84, 85, 136.
thikcB, Kohus cllipsiprymnus, 502.
Thomas, Oldfield, 11, 14, 81, 264, 267,
276, 278, 346, 369, 400, 415, 430,
452, 453, 460, 485, 510, 519, 531,
532, 533, 588, 594, 610, 662; bib-
liog., 772, 773.
Ihomasi, Adenota koh, 510.
Crocuta crocuta, 264.
Thomson gazelle, 8, 599; map, 607.
Thomson, Joseph, 6, 13, 601; bib-
liog., 773.
thomsoni, Gazella, 599.
Gazella thomsoni, 601.
Tiang damaliscus, 350; map, 357.
Hang, Damaliscus korriguni, 350.
Tiger, value of stripes, 112.
Tippelskirch, Herr von, 317.
tippelskirchi, Gira^a camelopardalis,
316.
Tjader, R., 500; bibliog., 773.
tjaderi, Kobus defassa, 500.
tohi, Rcdunca redunca, 487.
Topi, 8, loi, 351,
Damaliscus, 351; map, 357.
Trachylobiutn hornemannianum, 38.
Tragelaphince, key to genera, 421,
422, 423, 424.
Tragelaphiis ; characters, 424, 425; col-
oration, 425; habits, 426; range, 426.
scriptus, 426.
scriplus bor, 437; map, 439.
scriptus dama, 425; map, 439.
scriptus decula, map, 439.
scriptus delamerei, 14, 430; map,
439-
scriptus mcncliki, map, 439.
scriplus multicolor, map, 439.
scriptus olivaceus, 434; map, 439.
Treves, Frederick, bibliog., 773.
Trichoclaudus malosanus, 48.
Trotter, Spencer, 60, 126.
True, F. W., bibliog., 773.
Tucker, A. R., bibliog., 773,
Typical black rhinoceros, 651.
Grant gazelle, 588.
Kirk dikdik, 628.
Uasin Gishu oribi, 560.
Ucinia, 51.
Uganda, King of, 3; railway, 10, 177.
blue duiker, 534.
bushbuck, 13, 435.
bush duiker, 541.
defassa waterbuck, 496.
giraffe, 314.
kob, 510.
lelwel hartebeest, 400.
lion, 226.
red duiker, 531.
red-fronted gazelle, 608.
sitatunga, 440.
Uganda;, Redunca redunca, 488.
Kobus defassa, 496.
Ukamba Kirk dikdik, 631.
Vasco da Gama, i,
Vasse, M., 378.
Vegetation; character of, 35, 36; zones,
37, 38.
Veldt; location, 42; character, 42.
vclox, Acinonyx jubatus, 246.
Walbcrgia ugandensis, 48.
Wallace, Harold Frank, 57, 59, 68;
bibliog., 773.
Waller, 610.
walleri, Lithocranius, 610.
Ward, Rowland, 288, 346, 480, 485,
652; bibliog., 773.
wardi, Redicnca redunca, 485.
Wart-hog, 281, 282, 283; key to spe-
cies, 284.
desert; characters, 287, 288; his-
tory, 287; measurements, 288;
range, 287, 288.
East African; coloration, 284, 285;
history, 284; measurements,
285; range, 284, 285, 286.
Nile; characters, 286, 287; his-
tory, 287; measurements, 287;
range, 286.
798
INDEX
Wart-hog, Somali, 14.
Waterbuck, 77, 490; key to species,
490, 491.
common; description, 502; key to
races of, 502; 7; map, 507.
defassa; characters, 491, 492;
key to races, 494; habits, 491,
492, 493; history, 491; range,
491; map, 501.
highland; characters, 503; color-
ation, 503; habits, 503 to 505;
history, 503; measurements,
505; range, 502; map, 507.
Mrs. Gray's, 5.
Nile defassa; characters, 495;
coloration, 495; history, 495;
measurements, 496; range, 495 ;
map, 501.
'Nzoia defassa; description, 498;
range, 498; map, 501.
Rainey defassa; coloration, 498,
500; measurements, 500; range,
498, 499, 500; map, 501.
Rudolf defassa; description, 497,
498; range, 497; map, 501.
Swahili; coloration, 506; history,
506; range, 506; map, 507.
Uganda defassa; coloration, 496,
497; history, 496; measure-
ments, 497; range, 496; map,
SOI.
Weapons (rifles), 744.
Wehea africana, 48.
Werne, 514.
White-bearded wildebeest, 5, 11, 361;
map, 373.
White-eared kob, 60, 514.
White, Edward Stewart, 209, 648,
678, 743, 744; bibliog., 774.
White, John Jay, 339, 560.
White rhinoceros, 7, 14, 659; map,
671.
White-withered Icchwi, 5, 60, 519.
Wildebeest, Athi white-bearded; color-
ation, 370; history, 369; key to, 369;
measurements, 370; range, 369, 370;
map, 373.
brindled, 360, 361.
characteristics, 268 to 362; habits,
loi, 268 to 362.
Loita white-bearded; coloration,
371, 372; measurements, 372,
373; range, 371; map, 373.
white-bearded; coloration, 361;
range, 5, 11, 361.
Willoughby, John C, 8, 254, 267, 2,2,2>,
346, 369, 445, 506, 565, 602; bib-
liog., 774-
Wilson, H. A., bibliog., 774.
Wolf, 130.
WoUaston, A. F. R., 497; bibliog.,
774-
Wood, Major, 305.
Wroughton, R. C, 544.
Yellow-backed duiker. West African, 9.
Zanzibar pygmy antelope, 550.
Zebra, Grevy; range, 700, 701, 708;
history, 700; coloration, 701, 702,
704, 705, 706; characters, 704; map,
707.
highland quagga; range, 687,
692, 693; history, 688; color-
ation, 688; measurements, 691 ;
map, 695.
Kilimanjaro quagga; range, 693,
694; history, 693; coloration,
694; measurements, 694; map,
695-
quagga; coloration, 677; range,
577, 682; habits, 678; key to
races, 687; map, 695.
Samburu quagga; range, 694;
coloration, 696, 697; measure-
ments, 697; map, 695.
AMNH LIBRARY
1001
3556