THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES 



Another time in trekking along the Guaso Nyiro we 

 came upon an unusually large herd of water buck, contain- 

 ing at least thirty animals, among which I easily singled 

 out a very fine old bull with magnificent horns. There 

 were also a great many females in the herd and several 

 very small " babies." The water bucks were all feeding 

 a few hundred yards away from the river on the stony 

 slopes of a hill, but as soon as they observed us they made 

 a bee-line for the stream. I fired at the big buck, which 

 brought up the rear of the fleeing herd. As he received 

 the bullet he tumbled over, making a complete somersault, 

 but regaining his equilibrium in the next instant, he got 

 up and reached the water before I had a chance to fire at 

 him again. When we came down to the river's edge we 

 could see no trace of any of the animals until one of the 

 men detected the mighty horns of the wounded bull among 

 the reeds only some thirty yards away from us. The cun- 

 ning animal, when it saw that it could not escape with the 

 rest of the herd, had submerged its whole body in the river 

 until only the head stuck up out of the water! I believe 

 that if he had not moved his head he would not have been 

 discovered, but now he was detected and dispatched with 

 another shot through the brain. The water was rather 

 deep; two of the men, however, volunteered to swim out 

 and bring the buck ashore, for which they received an extra 

 " bakshish." 



There are several kinds of closely allied species of the 

 water buck, the most common in British East Africa being 

 the Cobus defassa. On one of my trips to East Africa I 

 shot a water buck which seemed to be somewhat different 

 from the ordinary Cobus defassa. The skin of this animal, 



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