370 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



species of wildebeest in East Africa associating together in 

 the same herds. One of these has been assigned to the 

 typical brindled wildebeest with a black throat mane, and 

 the other has been known as the white-bearded wildebeest. 

 In the "Book of Antelopes" these two forms are considered 

 and their ranges and characteristics stated. How this error 

 has crept into the literature it is difficult to conceive, for 

 no specimens representing a black-maned form have ever 

 been collected in the region. The series of twenty-two 

 specimens in the National Museum from British East Af- 

 rica shows no variation from a wholly white or light-colored 

 throat mane. In the southern portion of German East 

 Africa specimens of the brindled wildebeest may occur. 

 The southern limits of the white-bearded are not known. 

 As no specimens showing intermediate coloration in the 

 throat mane have been reported, we are not yet justified in 

 considering the white-bearded a race of the brindled. 



The Athi white-bearded wildebeest may be distinguished 

 from the Loita race by the lighter-colored legs, the more hori- 

 zontally directed horns, and the larger body size. The legs 

 are drab in color, like the body, and never as dark as the 

 olive-brown of the Loita race, and the body color is less 

 blackish, the chest, shoulders, and lower sides never assum- 

 ing a deep seal-brown or blackish cast. The horns extend 

 in a horizontal plane from the head and curve downward 

 comparatively little from their bases. Adult male speci- 

 mens vary but little in body size and exceed but slightly the 

 females. The flesh measurements of a male from the Kapiti 

 Plains, shot by Colonel Roosevelt, were: head and body, 77 

 inches; tail, 24 inches; hind foot, 17 inches; ear, 8 inches. 

 The skull of this specimen has a length of iQfV inches. An 

 average female skull measures i8>^ inches in length. The 

 horns of adult males average 25 inches in greatest spread and 

 about 20 inches in length, but the record head exceeds these 

 dimensions by some 4 inches. 



Loita White-Bearded Wildebeest 



Gorgon albojuhatus mearnsi 



Native Name: Masai, olengat. 



Gorgon albojuhatus mearnsi Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 



17, P- I- 



