426 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



habits. Their haunts are forests or dense bush upon which 

 they browse, and where they lead a sohtary Hfe. Like most 

 of the deer they are very local and seldom range over an 

 area of more than a few miles. In external appearance the 

 resemblance in body and shape of head, ears, and tail is 

 singularly close. The genus comprises a single species which 

 splits up into numerous geographical races. Nowhere, how- 

 ever, are two races found occupying the same territory. 

 The nyala, a large, transversely striped antelope, bearing in 

 the male a long throat mane similar to that of the greater 

 koodoo, is usually considered a member of this genus; but, 

 owing to its differences in coloration and other structural 

 differences, it has been distinguished as a genus, Nyala. 

 Tragelaphus ranges throughout the whole of Ethiopia from 

 the Cape northward to the southern edge of the Sahara 

 Desert and the northern limits of Abyssinia. The altitudi- 

 nal range covers a wide area from sea-level to 9,000 feet. 

 The only fossil species assigned to the genus is one from 

 the Miocene of Germany, but it is of very doubtful identity 

 with the bushbucks of Africa. 



The Bushbuck 



Tragelaphus scriptus 



The bushbucks range from the Abyssinian highlands and 

 the adjacent Red Sea coast westward along the southern 

 border of the Sahara Desert to Senegal, and south through- 

 out the whole continent to the Cape. They are absent only 

 from the open plains, waterless deserts, and from altitudes 

 above 10,000 feet. 



Owing to the great geographical variation in color and 

 the marked sexual color differences in some races, the species 

 is difficult of definition. The forms which we now call races 

 were nearly all described as species, owing to this great 

 variation and the lack of specimens showing intermediate 

 characters. 



Scriptus may be described as a bushbuck having a large 

 white patch on the lower throat, another on the upper 

 throat, two white spots on the cheeks below the eye, white 

 lips, chin, and gular region, a white band at the axilla and 

 the groin, a white stripe down the inside of the legs to the 



