WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 521 



occasionally described by closet systematists. It is a sin- 

 gular proof of the extreme difficulty even good observers 

 have in recognizing patent facts which are unexpected, that 

 none of these men recognized that this White Nile antelope 

 of the marshes was nearest of kin to the lechwi of the Zam- 

 besi and other South African rivers. They persistently com- 

 pared it either with the neighboring waterbuck, or more fre- 

 quently with the neighboring white-eared kob; at least one 

 of the systematists actually suggested that it was not dis- 

 tinct from the latter. Yet it is difficult to understand how 

 any observer of the animal in its haunts, or any student 

 with specimens before him, could fail to see its real affinities. 

 We had only read of the lechwi in the writings of Selous and 

 other observers, but as soon as we saw the Nile riverbucks 

 at home, we recognized their relationship to the riverbucks 

 of the Zambesi. One of our number, when we reached 

 Khartoum, wrote to Captain Stigand, who was on his way 

 southward through that city, telling him that the white- 

 withered antelopes were close kin to the lechwi; and, shortly 

 afterward, when he had himself observed them. Captain 

 Stigand confirmed this statement in a letter to Selous, which 

 the latter showed us. 



We found the white-withered lechwi in large herds, some- 

 times of forty or fifty individuals. These herds made a 

 broad trail where they passed through the reeds or tall marsh- 

 grass or the edges of the papyrus; and the long-hoofed an- 

 telopes swam the deep channels without hesitation, and 

 splashed their way over the soft black mire, and across the 

 pools through the tough stems of the close-growing water- 

 lilies. Often the marshes through which they made their 

 way were so deep in water that it was up to our shoulders. 



