The male sitatunga stands about 3 feet 6 inches at the shoulder, and varies in general colour in different localities from light to dark brown. The adult females are either red with a few faint stripes and spots, or light brown, only retaining very faint traces of any stripes or spots. The young are, both in tropical West and Central East Africa, red, striped, and spotted with white; but in South-west Africa dark blackish brown, with spots and stripes of yellowish white. The hoofs are excessively long, and the skin which covers the back of the pastern is hairless, and of a very thick and horny consistency. The males alone carry horns, which are of the same character as in the iriyala, but more spiral and longer, having been known to attain & length of 28 inches in a straight line and 35 inches over the curve. is an inhabitant of the extensive swamps which exist in many parts of the The sitatunga interior of Africa. It may be said to live in the water, as it passes its life in flooded beds of ceeds and papyrus, into the muddy bottoms of which its long hoofs, when splayed out, prevent 33

it from sinking. When forced out into dry ground by heavy floods, the formation of its feet so hinders it in running that it can be overtaken and speared by a native on foot. I was informed by the natives on the Chobi River that, when the floods enabled them to paddle their canoes through the reed-beds, they often killed considerable numbers of the sitatungas. These animals, they said, when they saw a canoe Photo ly the Duchess of Bedford] FEMALE GORAL. [Woburn Abbey. approaching, would The goral is a Himalayan antelope, with somewhat the habits of a chamois. often not attempt to seek safety by flight, but would sink down in the water, submerging their whole bodies, and leaving only their nostrils above the surface, and in this position were easily speared. is not gregarious, but is met with singly or in pairs. The hair is long, The sitatunga but soft and silky; and the skins are much sought after by the natives for blankets.

In addition to the bushbucks and sitatungas, two more very notable spiral-horned African antelopes remain to be mentioned namely, the GREATER KUDU and the LESSER KUDU.

The GREATER KUDU is one of the most magnificent-looking of the whole family of antelopes, and is an animal of large size, an adult male standing 4 feet 9 inches and upwards at the withers. The general colour of this species is light brown to dark grey, the old males looking much darker than females or younger animals, because the scantiness of their coats shows the dark colour of the skin beneath. On each side of the body and hindquarters there are several white stripes, which vary in number Photo by W. P. Dfindo] [Regent's Park. from four to eight or HARXESSED ANTELOPE. nine. As in all this A very beautiful species, in which the pround-colour of the coat is a rich chestnut, while the spots and stripes are pure white. group of antelopes,

The Antelopes 259

there are two or three cheek-spots, as well as an arrow-shaped white mark across the nose, below the eyes. In the male there is a slight mane on the back of the neck, and a fringe of long white and blackish-brown hair intermixed, extending from the throat to the chest. The ears are very large and rounded, and the male is adorned with magnificent spiral horns, which have been known to attain a length of 48 inches in a straight line from base to tip, and 64 inches over the curve. The greater kudu once had a very wide range, which extended from the central portions of the Cape Colony to Angola on the west, and on the east throughout East Africa up to Abyssinia; but, with the single exception of the buffalo, no species of wild animal suffered more from the terrible scourge of rinderpest which recently swept over the continent than this lordly antelope, and it has almost ceased to exist in many districts of South and South it was still very numerous.Central Africa, where up to 1896

The greater kudu is a bush-loving antelope, and very partial to wooded hills, though it is also plentiful in the neighbourhood of rivers which flow through level tracts of country covered it is never found at any great distance fromwith forest and bush. In my own experience water. It eats leaves and wild fruits as well as grass, and lives in small herds or families, never, I believe, congregating in large numbers. In Southern Africa, at any rate, it was always exceptional to see more than twenty greater kudus together, and I have never seen more than thirty. At certain seasons of the year the males leave the females, and live alone or several together. I once saw nine magnificently horned kudus standing on the bank of the Chobi, and I have often seen four or five males of this species consorting together. is met As a rule the greater kudu with in hilly country or in bush so dense that a horse cannot gallop through it at full speed; but if met with in open ground, a good horse can overtake an old male without much difficulty. The females are much lighter and faster, and cannot be overtaken in any kind of ground. is one of the The greater kudu most timid and inoffensive of animals, and when attacked by dogs will not make the slightest attempt to defend itself either with its horns or by kicking. The LESSER KUDU in general colour nearly resembles its larger relative, but is much smaller, the males only standing about 40 inches at the withers, and it lacks the long fringe of hair under the throat. The white stripes on the body and hindquarters are, however, more numerous from eleven to fourteen; and the horns, which are only present in the males, are less divergent, and with the spiral curvature much closer

Photo by Percy Ashenden] than in.the greater kudu. MALE KUDU. The lesser kudu is an inhabitant A kudu bull stands about 5 feet or a little more at the withers, being in size only inferior to the eland. The horns form a corkscrew-like spiral. of Somaliland and the maritime

26o The Living Animals of the World

districts of British East Africa. It frequents thick scrubby jungle, and is said to be exceedingly watchful and wary. It lives either in pairs or in small families, but never congregates in large herds. Like all the tragelaphine antelopes, this species is a leaf-eater, and feeds principally during the night, lying up in thick bush during the heat of the day.

There remains to be mentioned but one other group of antelopes, the ELANDS, large, heavily built animals, which belong to the present group, but differ from all species of kudu, sitatunga, and bushbuck, inasmuch as both sexes are horned. There are two forms of the COMMON ELAND namely, the grey variety of South-western Africa, and the striped animal, which is found in the countries farther north and east. The two forms grade one into the other, and are absolutely identical in their habits and mode of life, the differences between them being merely superficial. To the south of the twenty-third parallel of south latitude all elands are of a uniform fawn colour, except the old animals, which look dark grey, from the fact that the scantiness of their coats allows the dark colour of the skin to show through the hair. Old males, when standing in the shade of a tree, appear to be of a deep blue-grey in colour, and are known " to the colonists of South Africa as blue bulls." In Ehodesia, South-east Africa, and the countries to the north of the Zambesi, all the elands are bright chestnut-red when young, with a black line down the centre of the back from the withers to the tail, broad black patches on the backs of the fore legs above the knees, and eight or nine white stripes on each side. When they grow old, the ruddiness of the ground-colour gradually fades, the black markings on the fore legs die out, and the white stripes become indistinguishable at a short distance, the old bulls looking deep blue-grey in general colour. Every intermediate stage of colouring between the unstriped and the highly coloured forms of eland is to be found in the district lying between

Photo by J. W. McLellan] [Highbury. the central portions of the Kalahari ELAND. Desert and the Zambesi Kiver. Old male A feature of the eland is the large " dewlap." Unlike the kudu, both sexes are horned. elands south of the Zambesi develop a growth of long, bristly black hair on the forehead, which often hangs over their eyes and extends half-way down their noses. North of the Zambesi this growth of hair is not nearly so luxuriant.

I have carefully measured the standing height at the withers of many old male elands in the interior of South Africa, and found that it varied from 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches. The horns of bulls in their prime measure from 26 inches to 33 inches in length, but old bulls wear their horns down very much. The cows carry longer, though thinner horns than the bulls. it has The range of the eland once extended from Cape Agulhas to the White Nile, but become extinct in many districts of Southern Africa, and in almost every other portion of its range has, like all other tragelaphine antelopes, suffered so cruelly from the recent visitation of rinderpest that it has now become a scarce animal all over Africa.

During the rainy season elands are usually met with in small herds of from four or five

Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [Woburn Abbey.

ELAND COWS.

Female elands carry longer, although more slender horns than the bulls, 261

the World262 The Living Animals of

to ten individuals; but towards the end of the dry season they collect into large herds, and at such times I have often seen from fifty to over two hundred of these animals in one troop. In my experience elands live for two-thirds of the year in forest or bush-covered country, or amongst rugged hills; and in such localities they are difficult to overtake on horseback; but in the middle of the dry season, as soon as they smell the smoke of the grass fires lighted by the natives on the open plateaux, they leave their retreats, and, collecting in herds, wander out on to the treeless plains in search of young grass. They then fall an easy prey to a mounted hunter, especially the heavy old bulls, which can be run to a standstill with ease by a very moderate horse. The flesh of the eland is excellent when the animal is in good condition, as at such a time these animals become very fat, especially the old bulls, whose hearts become encased in a mass of fat which will often weigh 20 Ibs. It is a mistake, however, to think that is little grasseland-meat is always good; for towards the end of the dry season, when there to be got, they feed extensively on the leaves of certain bushes, and their meat at such times becomes very poor and tasteless.

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