310 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



we first found Buffalo tracks, but these indicated only a few scattered 

 animals. Continuing several days* journey to the vicinity of Um 

 Orug, a large island in the stream bed, we finally came upon Buffaloes 

 in such numbers as are hardly to be found elsewhere in Africa at the 

 present day. At Khor Galegu was the last native village, and at 

 some distance above this began a series of so-called ' meres,' which are 

 great marshy areas often a mile long, and even at this dry season 

 (February) moist or even boggy, with a rank growth of high grass, 

 now largely eaten down by the wild game. For to these places re- 

 sorted the large ruminants for miles around. It was near such a 

 meadow, near Um Orug that we encountered a herd of some 250 

 Buffalo as they came at sunset to drink at a large pool in the river bed. 

 Later we saw what was no doubt the same herd on a great 'mere' 

 below this spot. On a 'mere' near a camping spot called Beit el 

 Wahsh, we saw a second herd of about 100 old and young, and near 

 a camp El Abiad, a herd of some sixty or more on a similar ' mere.' A 

 very large old bull was seen here, that seemed to have been driven 

 from the herd and was at the opposite side of the 'mere.* This and 

 two other old bulls that were found together on another 'mere' 

 far from any herd, fell to Dr. Phillips's rifle. They were all much 

 battle-scarred, and one had lost an eye, and its ears were badly torn. 

 The appearance of a herd of Buffalo at a distance is highly charac- 

 teristic. They mass closely together, and their great black bodies 

 form a solid rank, whose outline is hardly broken by the heads and 

 horns, as these are carried nearly on a level with the back. The 

 small White Egret often feeds close among the herds. At Abiad we 

 saw a large flock of these birds, their white plumage in strong contrast 

 to the black bulk of the great beasts. 



Strepsiceros strepsiceros CHORA (Cretzschmar). 



Northern Greater Kudu. 



Antilope chora Cretzschmar, Riippell's Atlas reise nordlichen Afrika. Saugeth. , 

 1826, p. 22. 



Pocock (1905) has proposed to distinguish the Greater Kudu of 

 northern Africa as a distinct race from that of South Africa, and 

 revives Cretzschmar's name for it. It is readily distinguished by its 

 fewer white body stripes. 



Unquestionably the Kudu is the finest of the antelopes of the Nile 



