BUSHBUCKS, KOODOOS, AND ELANDS 423 



liable guide to the natural affinities of the various species. 

 A careful study of the skulls, however, reveals some impor- 

 tant differences between species which have hitherto been 

 combined in the same genus on account of horn resemblances 

 solely. The genus of the koodoos, Strepsiceros, is an in- 

 stance of this sort. The lesser koodoo, Strepsiceros im- 

 berbis, is without doubt as closely allied to the bushbuck, 

 Tragelaphus, as to the greater koodoo, as regards its skull 

 characters and pattern of coloration. It is a geographical 

 associate of both genera and deserves recognition as a 

 separate genus in order to emphasize its true relationships. 

 The nyala, Tragelaphus angasi, is another species which 

 also must be accorded generic rank. Here, however, we 

 have to do with a species showing almost identical horn 

 characters with Tragelaphus, but differing distinctly in 

 skull characters, pattern of coloration, and habits. 



The tragelaphine antelopes range over Africa south of 

 the Sahara, from the northern limits of the Abyssinian high- 

 lands and adjacent Red Sea coast south to the Cape. They 

 are universally distributed throughout plains, forests, and 

 swamps from sea-level to timber-line or the limits of forest 

 growth. Geologically the subfamily is known as far back as 

 the Miocene. Most of the fossil species are Eurasian and 

 North African. Recently twisted horn-cores resembling 

 those of the koodoo have been found by Merriam in the 

 Pliocene of Nevada, but such forms were doubtful members 

 of the tragelaphine group. Within the present year Gidley 

 has described from a series of teeth from Pleistocene cave 

 deposits in Maryland an American species of eland. It is, 

 however, far from proven that the animal towhich these teeth 

 belonged was an eland or a member of the Tragelaphince, 



