ALLEN: MAMMALS FROM THE BLUE NILE VALLEY. 317 



had learned to keep under cover during most of the (hiyhght hours, 

 they were extraordinarily tame. Unless the wind brought the taint 

 of human scent, .they were almost without fear, but stood gazing 

 within a few yards. On the Binder they were commonly in small 

 groups, often an old buck with three or four does and once a younger 

 buck On becoming alarmed the does would retreat at once leaving 

 the old buck standing at gaze. We once came suddenly upon a young- 

 ish animal that evidently had not seen us until it suddenly looked up 

 from feeding a few yards to one side of the trail. At once it dropped 

 flat upon the ground with head stretched out. We watched it a few 

 moments, and as soon as we passed on it lifted its head to gaze after 

 us, but remained crouching among the few stalks of tall grass that 

 afforded not the slightest cover. 



Near Um Orvig I watched a Reedbuck as it came to w^ater, shortly 

 after noon, with several Ariel. It drank much longer than they, 

 stopping now and then to look about, but apparently quite uncon- 

 cerned for the crocodiles, several of which lay a short distance off in 

 the water. On one of the large open 'meres' we found Reedbuck 

 active and apparently grazing by moonlight late in the evening. 

 They were always the last of the antelope to take fright and run off 

 when the caravan came out upon the 'mere' where they were feeding. 

 We saw two large bucks, each with the tip of a horn broken off. 



It is possible that our specimens may be referable to the race 

 cotioni but material is not at hand to settle this point. 



Johnson (1903) records killing a very large one on the Binder at 

 Burraba in 1901, but we saw none so far down that river. 



CoBUS DEFASSA (Rlippell). 



Abyssinian Waterbuck. 



Antilope defassa Rlippell, Neue wirbelth. fauna Abyssinien. Saugeth., 1S35, 

 p. 9, pi. 3. 



On the Blue Nile the Waterbuck is greatly reduced in numbers 

 and no doubt will be practically gone in the course of a few years. 

 We saw almost nothing of it on this river, though Br. Phillips found 

 a few near Adreiba above Roseires, and we were shown a fair head 

 killed near the latter place by Mr. Savage, then acting chief of the 

 district. Cotton, however, in 1911, found Waterbuck at Bados, but 

 if any are to be found below this region, they must be rare indeed. 



