WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 355 



also common. Like the hartebeest, the topi often stands 

 on ant-hills to watch and look round. In places we found 

 the topi shyer than the kongoni, and in places both were 

 tame. The topi is said to be an even swifter and more en- 

 during runner than the kongoni. However this may be, it 

 is certainly both swift and enduring, and it is, morever, 

 very agile; when a herd is suddenly alarmed the individuals 

 spring clear over one another's backs in the hurry and con- 

 fusion, and on one such occasion we saw one jump over an 

 ant-hill higher than a man's head. The bulls fight fiercely 

 among themselves. On the Uasin Gishu plains we saw a 

 big herd of topi one of whose members had a white face 

 like the South African blesbok. 



There are few more beautiful sights than a herd of topi 

 seen close by in the bright sunlight of the great African 

 plains. They are not ungainly, like the hartebeest, and their 

 coats are not only beautifully colored but have^ in life a 

 wonderful iridescent sheen; the muscles ripple beneath the 

 satin skins, and every movement shows lithe and abounding 

 vigor. 



A topi bull weighs two hundred and eighty or three hun- 

 dred pounds; a cow twenty or thirty pounds less. In spite 

 of its usual wariness, the topi is subject to fits of silliness 

 and curiosity that expose it to reckless slaughter by rifle- 

 bearing hunters. It is very tenacious of life, and will go 

 long distances after receiving what would seem to be crip- 

 pling wounds. 



The body coloration is a bright cinnamon-rufous over- 

 laid everywhere by a silvery sheen which gives the coat a 

 resplendent effect. The red color is deepest on the head, 

 throat, and sides and lightest on the rump, hind quarters, 



