WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 371 



Range. — From the Loita Plains and Rift Valley in the 

 vicinity of Mount Suswa southward to German East Africa 

 and westward through the headwaters of the Victoria 

 Nyanza drainage to Speke Gulf. 



Wildebeest froni the Loita Plains of British East Africa 

 secured by the Smithsonian African Expedition under the 

 direction of Colonel Roosevelt have clearly demonstrated 

 the racial distinctness of the form occupying the extreme 

 southwestern corner of British East Africa. A specimen 

 shot by Doctor E. A. Mearns near the ford on the South- 

 ern Guaso Nyiro River has been selected for the type of 

 the race which now bears his name. The Loita Plains 

 white-bearded wildebeest differs from the form inhabiting 

 the Athi Plains by the decidedly darker color of their legs, 

 which are olive-brown or sepia in the old males and some- 

 what lighter in the females. The body color shows a tend- 

 ency to become darker or quite blackish on the chest, 

 shoulders, and sides. The horn differences consist in the 

 more downward curve of the horns from the base, the lower 

 margin falling well below the orbit and quite on a level with 

 the condyles at the back of the skull. The skulls average 

 smaller, indicating smaller body size. 



The dorsal color is drab-gray, spotted and banded by dark 

 patches due to the tips of the hair becoming dark-brown as 

 though representing an old, worn pelage, the new only being 

 drab-gray. This faded condition of the hair is not seasonal 

 but is a chronic condition in the wildebeest, and has given rise 

 to the color pattern and to the name brindled commonly ap- 

 plied to it. The limbs are darker than the body and are uni- 

 form olive-brown deepening somewhat on the pasterns. The 

 chest, fore part of belly, and lower sides are clove-brown, and 

 much darker than the back ; the chest medially is black. The 

 groins, axillae, and inside of the legs are drab-gray like the 

 back. The tail is like the back in color and furnished along 

 the lower surface and at the tip with long black hair forming 

 a terminal tuft fully as long as the tail itself. The neck is 

 like the back, in ground-color but shows ragged cross- 

 bands of dark hair bases. A mane of long black hair extends 

 the whole length of the nape and is continued down the 

 back by a black line to the rump. The throat is marked by 

 a mane of long buffy or whitish hair from the chin to the 



