352 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



to whom we are indebted for the earliest accounts of the 

 game animals of East Africa, met with the topi as early as 

 1 866 on the plains near Merereni and also at the mouth of the 

 Tana. Jackson, Harvey, and Hunter a score of years later 

 recorded the topi in the same district. At this time it was 

 held to be identical with the korrigum and called, accord- 

 ingly, the Senegal hartebeest. In 1892 Matschie described 

 the topi as a new species, Damalis jimela, basing his descrip- 

 tion on a pair of horns from the southeastern shore of the 

 Victoria Nyanza and a painting by Richard Bohm of speci- 

 mens from central German East Africa. None of the color 

 characters given by Matschie apply to his race, but the 

 horns may be taken as representing the race. More re- 

 cently, in 1907, Lydekker renamed the race, selousi, on speci- 

 mens from the Uasin Gishu plateau. Still more recently 

 another name, phallus^ has been applied by Cabrera to a 

 white-faced specimen from the same plateau shot by Senor 

 Huerta. This specimen represents an abnormal or extreme 

 type of individual variation of the topi. Occasional speci- 

 mens are found in East Africa marked by a whitish or buffy 

 face blaze and showing a tendency toward the white face blaze 

 of the closely related blesbok and bontebok of South Africa. 

 The topi resembles closely the tiang in coloration and 

 proportions, but may be distinguished by its darker cinna- 

 mon-rufous coat, longer pelage, and smaller horns. From 

 other East African antelopes it differs conspicuously by the 

 silvery sheen of its coat which gives it a resplendent effect 

 very similar to that of watered silk. 



The topi offers almost as conspicuous an instance of dis- 

 connected distribution as the square-mouthed rhinoceros. 

 In East Africa it is abundant along the seacoast in certain 

 regions; and in the western part of the country it is abun- 

 dant in certain regions. From the regions between it is 

 totally lacking, although to all outward seeming they are 

 physically of precisely the same character. Moreover, ani- 

 mals of the same or very closely allied species or sub- 

 species are found in regions along the White Nile and in 



