WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 503 



The highland waterbuck was described recently by 

 Matschie from a specimen shot by Major Powell-Cotton 

 on the Thika a few miles north of the Athi Plains. It is 

 distinguishable from the other races by its lighter color, with 

 the exception of pallidus of Somaliland, which is the lightest 

 of all the races. The general tone of the dorsal coloration 

 is drab or hair-brown without any cinnamon suffusion, and 

 so light that the white rump stripe and the throat patch 

 are not very conspicuous. The legs are little darker than 

 the body, but are much more brownish, being uniform cin- 

 namon-brown. A specimen from the Northern Guaso 

 Nyiro has been described by Lonnberg as a distinct race, 

 but we fail to find any color differences in specimens from this 

 locality and those from Juja Farm which represent the high- 

 land race. Along the lower reaches of the Northern Guaso 

 Nyiro completely albino specimens are occasionally seen. 

 Such individuals are described as having eyes of normal 

 color and to occur associated in herds with normally colored 

 specimens. Some of the albino females are reported as 

 breeding, the offspring being normally colored. In the 

 elevated region traversed by the Northern Guaso Nyiro 

 through the eastern portion of the Laikipia Plateau the 

 highland waterbuck meets and associates with the defassa. 



We met the common waterbuck only in the eastern part 

 of East Africa; as we went westward it was supplanted by 

 its close kinsman, the defassa. In habits the two species are 

 identical; there were sometimes wide differences in conduct 

 and behavior between the waterbucks of one locality and 

 those of another, but these differences were within the same 

 species, and were parallel in the two species. Waterbuck 

 are highly polygamous, one big bull having perhaps a score 

 of cows in his herd. A few young bulls, yearlings, or two- 

 year olds, may be allowed to stay with the herd or hang 

 around the outskirts; but eventually the master bull drives 

 them off, and they wander singly, or in small parties, until 

 one or another grows big enough to rob of his harem 



