330 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



Range. — German and British East Africa, from Central 

 German East Africa north through British East Africa to 

 Mount Kenia, and westward to Mount Elgon; very local 

 in distribution, the localities being widely isolated. 



The East African roan was described by Doctor Matschie 

 in 1898, from specimens collected near Tabora, southeast of 

 the Victoria Nyanza, by Captain Langheld. In the same 

 year, but some months later, Herr Oscar Neumann described 

 the race under the name of rufopallidtis from specimens 

 which he had collected in Irangi, German East Africa, 

 but the latter name is not accepted by naturalists who 

 follow a strict law of priority in nomenclature. The first 

 men to meet the roan in East Africa were the explorers 

 Speke and Grant, who collected a specimen at Kazeh, a 

 station now known as Tabora. 



The East African race is recognizable with difficulty from 

 hakeri of the Nile Valley, owing to the great individual varia- 

 tion in color among adults. There is, however, usually a 

 decided difference in the darker color of the front of the 

 pasterns, which are uniform in color with the legs; the ears 

 are also darker, being tawny, but there is no difference in 

 the length of the hair at the tips, which is usually given as 

 the chief difference. The dark patch on the chest is larger 

 and darker, as a rule, and the general body color may be 

 somewhat darker. Two adult specimens, shot from the 

 same herd in the Amala River district by Paul J. Rainey, 

 show well how great the individual variation is. One is 

 dark grayish-drab, the other very light pinkish-cinnamon. 

 The skull exhibits a considerably shorter snout, the portion 

 in front of the premolars usually being less in length than 

 the tooth row, while in hakeri it is usually decidedly greater. 



The usual coloration of the dorsal parts is vinaceous- 

 buff, becoming somewhat darker on the hinder part of the 

 body, where the black of the tail projects onto the rump as 

 a dark stripe. The whole dorsal surface is dotted sparingly 

 with cinnamon hairs. The hair is rather longer on the lower 

 side of the neck, where it forms a throat mane as in the 

 waterbuck. The snout, upper and lower lips, chin, stripe 

 from the base of the horns past the front of the eye, and a 

 rounded patch behind the eye are white; while rest of face, 

 including the forehead and cheeks, is seal-brown or black. 



