358 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



of the males are decidedly heavier or thicker than those of 

 the females and are slightly longer as well. They do not, 

 however, vary much in size. The large series in the Na- 

 tional Museum range from 13 to 17^ inches. Ward re- 

 cords a specimen ig}i inches in length from East Africa. 



A large series, some thirty specimens, have been ex- 

 amined in the National Museum, from the Loita Plains and 

 Uasin Gishu Plateau. Much variation in the black stripe be- 

 low the eye is shown by this material, in fifty per cent of which 

 it is quite absent or only indicated by a spot behind the eye. 

 Several of the specimens show a tendency toward a white 

 face blaze. In one specimen from the Loita Plains there is 

 a strong intermixture of white hair throughout the whole 

 black face blaze, while in others this mixture is confined 

 either to the tip of the snout or the forehead between the 

 horn bases. The topi has been reported from southwestern 

 Uganda in the Ankole district by Delme-Radclifife and in 

 Buddu by Gedge. This elevated portion of Uganda marks 

 its extreme northwestern range in the Nile watershed. 



Hunter Antelope 

 Beatragus 



Beatragus Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 8, p. 8; type Da- 



maliscus hunteri. 



The Hunter antelope, owing to its peculiarities of body 

 form and horn shape, has recently been separated from the 

 genus Damaliscus and named Beatragus by Heller. In the 

 elongate shape of the snout it ^approaches the hartebeest, 

 but the occipital portion of the skull is rounded as in the 

 damaliscus antelopes and not overhung by a horn pedicle. 

 The horns arise independently behind the orbits, curve 

 outward, and then slant upward and backward, extending 

 parallel in direction for the greater part of their length. 

 Viewed from the front, they are broadly U-shaped and quite 

 impalla-like in general shape and size. They are ringed on 

 the basal two-thirds of their length, the tips being smooth 

 and acutely pointed. The first lower premolar tooth is usu- 

 ally wanting, the cheek-teeth of the lower jaw numbering 

 but five on a side. Beatragus differs from the hartebeests 



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