ALLEN: MAMMALS FROM THE BLUE NILE VALLEY. 321 



plentiful on the Galegu. We found them rare on the Blue Nile, and 

 saw them only in a few places, near Bados and ^lagangani, below 

 Roseires. They are more or less hunted here by passing sportsmen 

 and have become shy and watchful. They usually go in small herds 

 of ten or less and come to water at a few places removed from the 

 villages. After drinking they at once leave the river and are some 

 miles back in the thorn bush by daylight. On the upper Dinder, 

 where they seemed to have been unmolested for some time, their 

 behavior was c^uite different. On our way up this river we first came 

 upon them near a loop of the stream called Ereif el Dik (the cock's 

 comb, in allusion to the sinuous course of the stream), where a small 

 herd was started at noon from under some 'laloab' trees, whose date- 

 shaped fruit they had been nibbling on the ground. But it was not 

 imtil the region of the big open meadows or 'meres' was reached, at 

 Beit el Wahsh and Abiad that they were found in numbers, while 

 from this point to Um Orug they were very common. On one such 

 'mere' we estimated that nearly a thousand were in sight, feeding 

 quietly in the open most of the day, while it was not uncommon to 

 count seventy -five or one hundred on smaller 'meres.' Contrary to 

 their habits along the Blue Nile, they seemed to be here under no 

 restraint, and largely avoided the dry thorn bush, but fed on the 

 grassy 'meres' most of the day. They were nevertheless watchful 

 and were usually the first after the Ariel to take alarm, and to run off 

 in a somewhat panicky way. Two female specimens collected here 

 in mid-February contained each a large foetus. 



BUBALIS TORA RAHATENSIS Matschic. 



Eastern Sudan Hartebeest. 



Bubalis tora rahatensis Matschic, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. freunde, Berlin, 1906, 

 p. 246. 



The type of this race came from Shunfar, a tributary of the Rahad, 

 and its describer mentions a second specimen from about thirty miles 

 southwest of Lake Tana, adding that it apparently is found on the 

 entire middle Blue Nile, the Rahad and the Dinder. We were unable to 

 discover any sign of the species on the Blue Nile, however, and if it 

 now occurs along that stream, west of the Abyssinian boundary, it 

 must be extremely rare. On the upper Dinder, there are a few, but 

 they are scarce indeed in comparison with the Tiang. From Abiad to 



