112 Field Columbian Museum — Zoology, Vol. i. 



FAM. BOVID^. 

 Bubalis swaynei (Sclat). 



Bubalis swaynei. Swayne's Hartebeest. Native name Sig. 



tT.-g. i ad. Toyo Plain. 



/i.-n. 9 ad. Tovo Plain. 



(?.-/. 9 juv. Toyo Plain. 



This rare antelope, to obtain which I made a special trip to 

 Toyo Plain, is only found in a few localities on the elevated 

 plateau south of the Golis Range, and north of Ogaden. It dwells 

 in the open grassy plains, such as those of Toyo, Silo, and Marar 

 Prairie, and is never found among bushes, but keeps to the bare 

 country where its vision is uninterrupted by any object, trusting 

 to its great swiftness to carry it beyond the reach of its enemies. 

 This Hartebeest goes in troupes and herds from a half dozen to 

 many hundred individuals. On the plains inhabited by these 

 animals the bushes are rarely over two feet high and very few in 

 any place, so that stalking, in the usual acceptation of the term, 

 is practically an impossibility, as the Hartebeest see the hunter 

 much more qiiickly than they themselves are observed. Gen- 

 erally they are first sighted along the horizon line of the plain, 

 looking like black spots in the distance, but recognizable from 

 their peculiar shape. It is an ungraceful creature both in appear- 

 ance and in its action when in motion. The hind quarters are 

 lower than the withers, and the animals seem always to be stand- 

 ing up hill. But while it moves away in a lumbering kind of 

 canter, it possesses the greatest staying poAver and is really the 

 swiftest of all the antelopes, always graduating its pace to that of 

 its pursuer, and keeping the same distance between them, look- 

 ing back occasionally as if to satisfy itself that its enemy had 

 gained nothing in the chase. Single bulls are approached most 

 easily, but the larger the herd the more difficult it is to get near 

 them, as the courage of the entire number is only equal to that 

 of the most timid, and as soon as one begins to run all are off at 

 once. When one is seen in the distance on the plain, the hunter 

 walks toward them in a direct line if they are busy feeding or 

 moving slowly away, but should they stop to look around them, 

 the pursuers take a slanting direction as if intending to pass 

 them, or had not seen them. Sometimes, when almost near enough 

 to try a shot, they begin to run, in their rather slow, clumsy-look- 

 ing canter, but which is not usually kept up for any great dis- 

 tance, when they stop and turn to look back. Where this happens, 



