516 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



brown or black coat assumed by some of the old males, 

 which is a color change not met with in any other kob. 

 The female is distinguishable from the other races by the 

 greater amount of white about the eye, which is continued 

 forward on the snout as a preocular stripe, and also by the 

 light color of the leg stripes which are hair-brown instead 

 of seal-brown. 



A male in the dark phase has the dorsal surface of the 

 head and the body uniform dark seal-brown. The sides are 

 somewhat lighter, being bone-brown, and sharply defined be- 

 low from the white of the under-parts. The nape of the neck, 

 the crown, and the hinder surface of the thighs are mixed with 

 tawny hairs. The upper surface of the tail is pure ochra- 

 ceous-tawny, only the tip being black. The ears are wholly 

 white as well as a broad area at the base. The orbital 

 region is extensively white, the light color extending forward 

 as a preocular stripe toward the muzzle. The chin, throat, 

 lips, and margin of nostrils are white. There is a small white 

 spot on the cheeks below the ear. The white of the chest 

 extends far up the throat, leaving a rather narrow band of 

 seal-brown across the throat. The rest of the under-parts, in- 

 cluding the inside of the legs to the hoofs, and the whole of the 

 pasterns are white. The white stripe on the hind legs covers 

 the front surface from the hocks, the hinder part of which 

 is brown like the body. 



At the northern limit of kobs in the Nile Valley the 

 old males usually assume deep seal-brown or black upper 

 parts similar to the adult livery of the sable antelope. 

 Some individuals, however, do not assume this dark coat 

 except to a slight degree, that is, only upon the sides of the 

 throat, the shoulders, and the legs and flanks and snout. 

 Such rufous-colored individuals were described as a new 

 race, nigroscapulata, by Matschie in 1899. More recently, 

 in 1906, Lydekker applied the name vaughani to similarly 

 colored specimens from the same region. Both of these 

 races are based on either immature or adult rufous-colored 

 individuals of the white-eared kob with which they agree in 

 having the ears white or cream-buff on the outer surface, 

 and the lower parts of the legs, half-way to the knees, 

 whitish. Some of these rufous individuals show, by the 

 worn condition of their teeth and the obliteration of most 

 of the sutures in their skulls, that they are really aged 



