BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 449 



known. Two fossil species are described, one from the 

 Pliocene of India and a more recent Pleistocene species 

 from Algeria. 



East African Greater Koodoo 



Strepsiceros strepsiceros hea 



Native Names: Swahili, mama; Masai, olmaalo. 



Strepsiceros strepsiceros hea Heller, 1913; Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 13, 

 P- 3- 



Range. — Rift Valley and coast desert drainage in Ger- 

 man and British East Africa. Confined to isolated localities 

 which are widely separated. 



The greater koodoo was first reported from British East 

 Africa by Count Teleki, who obtained two in 1887, east of 

 Lake Baringo, in the same district where Kermit Roosevelt 

 obtained his specimens. Jackson early reported them from 

 the coast district near the Taita Hills, and A. H. Neumann 

 found a few in the hills near the south end of Lake Rudolf 

 in 1895. Recently a few have been seen on the German 

 border near the Southern Guaso Nyiro River. The present 

 race was described from specimens shot by Kermit Roosevelt, 

 at Donyo Gelasha, near Lake Baringo. 



Kermit was the only member of our party who came across 

 the koodoo, the most beautiful of African antelopes. He 

 found them east of Lake Baringo, in rough, dry, volcanic 

 country. They were always found on rocky hills, covered 

 with a jungle of thorn scrub and tree euphorbias. Usually 

 they rested during the hot midday hours, but once Kermit 

 came on two which were drinking in a stream exactly at 

 noon. They were wary. The stomachs of the two which 

 Kermit shot, a bull and a cow, were filled with grass; the 

 beasts were grazing at the time. 



The East African race is similar to the Abyssinian race 

 diora in the reduced number of body stripes, but decidedly 

 darker in color on the median dorsal region, ear tips, and the 



