518 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



animals, and it is quite evident that the black livery is to 

 some extent an individual character, although chiefly an age 

 affair. Selous, by the comparison of dates furnished by 

 sportsmen, has come to the conclusion that the black coat 

 is a seasonal change, but our experience throws consider- 

 able doubt on this opinion. We found both color phases 

 equally common at the same season, and in none of the 

 specimens were there any marks showing shedding or any 

 process by which a seasonal coat could be acquired. Speci- 

 mens identical in coloration with both nigroscapulata and 

 vaughani from the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal were secured 

 by the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction 

 of Colonel Roosevelt. Some of the upper Nile specimens 

 as well as the more remote ones from the Uasin Gishu 

 Plateau known as thomasi occasionally exhibit whitish ears 

 having the dark tips nearly obsolete. It is probable that 

 somewhere in the upper Bahr el Ghazal, perhaps in the 

 vicinity of Meshra-er-Rek, the two races meet. The white- 

 eared kob is without doubt local and confined to the extreme 

 northern limit of the range of the kobs in the Nile Valley. 

 Westward we find little or no change in the coloration of the 

 kobs between the Nile Valley and the Senegal or Nigerian 

 regions, which is a really vast extent of country. 



The flesh measurements of an adult male are: head and 

 body, 6i inches; tail, 14 inches; hind foot, 17 inches; ear, 6 

 inches; greatest length of skull, 11 inches. Four adult male 

 skulls have been examined from the Bahr el Zeraf and Lake 

 No district. The average of horn dimensions in these speci- 

 mens is 18 inches in length by 14 inches in greatest spread. 

 Rowland Ward, however, records a great many specimens 

 from the Nile of this race, all of which have horns exceeding 

 20 inches, the maximum measurement being 24^ inches. 



The Lechwi 



Onotragus 



Onotragus Gray, 1872, Cat. Rum. Brit. Mus., p. 17; type Cohiis lechee. 



The genus Onotragus was founded by Gray in 1872 for 

 the reception of the lechwi and based upon the character 

 of the tufted tail and sublyrate shape of the horns in this 



