356 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



and tail, where it fades to pure cinnamon. The shoulders 

 are marked by a broad black patch which extends down on 

 the forelegs as far as the knees and completely circles the 

 upper part of the leg. The hind quarters are marked by a 

 much larger black patch which extends down on the limbs 

 as far as the hocks above which it forms a complete band 

 around the leg. The legs below the knees and hocks are 

 uniform tawny, the color being slightly deeper in front 

 than behind. Some specimens show a median, narrow, wal- 

 nut-brown stripe on the back of the pasterns. The ter- 

 minal half of the tail is furnished with a long tuft and crest 

 of black hair. The under-parts are cinnamon-rufous, like 

 the dorsal surface, with the exception of the groins, the 

 posterior part of the belly, and the axillae, which are buffy. 

 The dorsal surface of the head from the crown to the muz- 

 zle is deep-black in color as far down as the level of the eyes. 

 The sides of the head and throat are a deep-bay or blood- 

 red color, which is sharply defined against the black. The 

 upper lips and the chin are tawny. A black stripe or bar 

 is usually present below the eye, extending from the black 

 snout patch to behind the eye. Often this bar is absent or 

 represented only by a spot below or behind the eye. Situ- 

 ated in front of the eye is the rounded anteorbital pore 

 surrounded by a narrow band of black naked skin. The 

 backs of the ears are tawny, with the terminal third walnut- 

 brown and the inner side white. The sexes are identical in 

 coloration, but the newly born young differ widely in color. 

 At first they are a uniform light-fulvous or buffy-ochra- 

 ceous, very much the color of sable at the same age. This 

 lighter color, however, is soon lost and the cinnamon coat 

 and black leg patches assumed. The black face blaze lags 

 somewhat behind the leg markings and is buffy and only 

 indistinctly indicated until the budding horns have reached 

 at least four inches in length. 



An adult male topi shot by Colonel Roosevelt on the 

 Loita Plains measured in the flesh: head and body, 67 

 inches; tail, 19 inches; hind foot, 22 inches; ear, 8 inches. 

 These dimensions represent well the average in males, but 

 the females are considerably smaller, the length being some 

 4 inches less and the hind leg i inch less. The skulls of the 

 males range in length from 15 to 15^^ inches. The horns 



