520 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



east of the Bahr el Zeraf. Limits of range not known, but 

 reported as far north as Taufikia opposite the mouth of the 

 Sobat, and as far south on the Bahr el Ghazal as Wau. 



Soon after the discovery of this antelope by Heuglin in 

 1853, and the accidental description of it by Fitzinger, it was 

 described as Cobus maria by Gray from specimens received 

 from Consul Petherick taken on the White Nile. Under this 

 name it has since been known to naturalists, owing to Fitz- 

 inger's description being considered inadequate. Fitzinger's 

 name, however, is accompanied by a mention of its large 

 horns and its general distinctness from the kob, and is more- 

 over founded on a specimen still preserved at Vienna which 

 was a few years later fully figured and described by Heuglin, 

 so that the name is well founded. Fitzinger mentions 

 Heuglin's intention of describing the species under the name 

 Adenota megaceros, and refrains on that account from describ- 

 ing it beyond giving the horn characters and the history and 

 locality of the specimen. Heuglin not only collected several 

 specimens of the Nile lechwi, but brought back to Vienna 

 with him a live female specimen, which, however, lived at 

 the Zoological Gardens but a short time. This is the only 

 specimen which has ever reached Europe alive. Inasmuch 

 as the rigid rules governing modern scientific nomenclature 

 sometimes give rather absurd results, it is a relief that in 

 this case they do justice, and enable us to substitute an 

 appropriate name, given to this fine riverbuck by its dis- 

 coverer, for an inappropriate name subsequently given to it 

 by a closet naturalist who had nothing to do with its dis- 

 covery. 



This interesting animal ought to be called waterbuck, 

 for in its habits it is emphatically a buck of the water, 

 whereas the true waterbuck merely lives in the neighborhood 

 of water, on dry land. We found this lechwi on the flooded 

 ground along Lake No and the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal. 

 It was first discovered by Heuglin, and for the fifty 

 years intervening between his discovery and the date of our 

 visit has been shot by various sportsmen and travellers, and 



