THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



numerous. He is generally found in pairs or in very small 

 herds of six to ten, although I have heard that in certain 

 parts of German East Africa it is not an uncommon thing 

 to find as many as fifteen to twenty-five of these beautiful 

 antelopes in one herd. They are also said to be fairly 

 numerous in a few districts of Somaliland, where they 

 are ruthlessly killed by the natives for the sake of the 

 horns, which are brought over to D Jibuti or Aden, and 

 sold to the tourists, as the big steamers coal in these 

 ports. 



The kudu is next to the eland in size, attaining a height 

 over the shoulders of from four feet four inches to four 

 feet seven inches. The magnificent horns sometimes meas- 

 ure more than three and a half feet in a straight line. 

 They have very sharp and well-defined ridges, running 

 almost up to the very tips of the spiral-shaped horns. The 

 female kudus carry no horns. The color of these antelopes 

 varies from grayish and reddish brown in young males 

 and females to a kind of bluish gray in old males, in which 

 respect they are much akin to the eland. Like the latter, 

 the kudu's skin is also marked with narrow, white stripes 

 running down from the back. Its beautifully marked head 

 carries several white spots, and a white V-shaped chevron 

 between the eyes. 



In British East Africa the kudu is rather scarce. In 

 the Baringo district he was formerly very abundant, but 

 was so much shot at there by British officers, garrisoned 

 at Fort Baringo, and also by " safariing " sportsmen, that 

 he was finally threatened with total extermination in that 

 part of the country. The government has, therefore, now 

 forbidden all kudu-hunting in the whole of the Baringo 



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