492 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



On the average we found its horns longer, but this may be 

 merely an accident of geography, for locality has much to 

 do with the size of an antelope's horns, no matter what the 

 species — and, extraordinary to say, the horns of one species, 

 say the impalla, may be less than the average size in a 

 region where the horns of another, as the waterbuck, may 

 be larger. It seems curious, inasmuch as so many African 

 antelope have short and even rather thin coats, to find these 

 marsh-loving, thicket-haunting waterbuck, dwelling right 

 under the equator, with coats as long and shaggy as those of 

 northern deer. 



From Lake Naivasha westward we found the defassa; 

 and from the Nyanza Lakes it extended down the Nile to 

 the mouth of the Sobat. Everywhere the waterbucks were 

 gregarious, and, therefore, polygamous, a heavy bull ac- 

 companying each herd of cows and young. The exact 

 habitat in which they were found varied in rather astonish- 

 ing manner. Around Lake Naivasha their home was in 

 the dense papyrus beds which fringed the lake. The high, 

 close-growing stems of the huge reeds formed a well-nigh 

 impenetrable cover, save where the waterbuck had trodden 

 out their trails. These made a network, a labyrinth which 

 extended almost, but not quite, to the lake's edge, meeting 

 and being crossed by the broader hippo trails which, of 

 course, did go down to — or rather come up from — the 

 water's edge. When alarmed the herds at once fled to the 

 papyrus for protection, and loud was the noise as they 

 crashed and crowded along the trails, splashing through the 

 mud and water while the dead stalks cracked and popped. 

 These reeds were merely their refuge and resting-place, and 

 held no food for them. They fed outside them, grazing in 



