WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 375 



The genus is confined to Africa, where it ranges from 

 Algeria and the Abyssinian highlands south to the Cape but 

 is absent from the Congo forest area. Arabia has been 

 credited with a hartebeest but without any satisfactory evi- 

 dence. The error, however, has gotten well established in 

 zoological literature and is based on the statement of Canon 

 Tristam concerning the occurrence of the bubal hartebeest 

 in Eastern Syria in the vicinity of the Dead Sea from 

 rumors received from the Arabs inhabiting that district. 



We encountered swarms of Coke hartebeest in eastern 

 and middle East Africa and swarms of the far bigger and 

 handsomer Jackson hartebeest west of them, while on the 

 border line between these were here and there colonies of 

 the closely allied Nakuru hartebeest. In Uganda and 

 along both banks of the White Nile we found hartebeest 

 akin to the Jackson. The Swahili name for every kind of 

 hartebeest is kongoni. The exact relationship and geo- 

 graphical distribution of these species and subspecies are 

 discussed in the technical part of the work. The habits of 

 all the species are substantially the same; that is, the in- 

 dividuals of one species in one locality differ more in habits 

 from the individuals of the same species in a totally different 

 kind of locality than from the individuals of another species 

 in an exactly similar locality. We therefore discuss them 

 under one head. Indeed, even in aspect the chief difference 

 that strikes the observer is one of size; the Coke hartebeest 

 weighs on an average from three hundred to three hundred 

 and fifty pounds, while the Jackson, a far finer beast in 

 every way, is more than half as long again, reaching a weight 

 of five hundred pounds and over. There are marked horn 

 differences in addition, however. 



Hartebeests, where not exterminated by man, range 



