WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 483 



by Redunca. The genus Cervicapra founded by Sparrman 

 in 1780 was based upon Antilope cervicapra^ the common 

 black buck of India. Smith a half century later founded 

 the genus Redu7ica for the African reedbucks, basing it upon 

 Pallas's description of the Senegal species, A7itilope redtmca, 

 and this term must now be employed for designating the 

 genus instead of the more familiar term Cervicapra^ which 

 applies only to the Indian black buck. 



The dorsal coloration is uniform yellowish, but the legs in 

 some races have a dark stripe in front. The size is medium, 

 the height at the withers not exceeding three feet, and the 

 tail is short and bushy. The short horns are curved forward 

 sharply, and are ringed for at least half their length. The 

 false hoofs are well developed. There is a rounded bare 

 spot below the ear on the side of the head. The reedbuck 

 is most closely allied to the rock reedbuck, but differs from it 

 externally by much longer and more strongly hooked horns, 

 by the shorter-haired tail, and larger body size. The sexes 

 show some slight color differences, the female being marked 

 by a dark blackish crown-patch which is absent in the adult 

 male but present in the immature. The female almost 

 equals the male in size, the difference in size of skulls being 

 very little. The nursing young are longer-haired and much 

 darker than the adults, being a uniform olive-drab grizzled 

 by blackish on the upper parts with the dark leg stripes 

 only present on the front of the pasterns, and the bare spot 

 below the ear indicated by a growth of short white hair. 

 The skull exhibits in comparison with Oreodorcas much 

 larger nasal-lachrymal sinus and sphenoidal processes to the 

 basioccipital, a longer snout having premaxillary bones 

 which do not reach the nasals, and a smaller orbit. Two 

 species are included in the genus; a large fulvous one, 

 arundinum, inhabiting South Africa, and a smaller yel- 

 lower species, redujica, inhabiting equatorial Africa. Reed- 

 bucks range from Cape Colony northward through the 

 East Coast drainage area to the Zambesi, where it spreads 

 west to Angola and thence north throughout the whole 

 extent of the continent as far as the southern borders of the 

 Sahara Desert in Senegal, the Nile region, and northern 

 Abyssinia. The only fossil species known is from the Pleis- 

 tocene of Algeria. 



