394 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



great individual variation in horns and skull size, but 

 scarcely none in coloration. The specimens from the Athi 

 Plains or the region east of Nairobi are more or less inter- 

 mediate between typical kongoni of the Loita Plains and 

 cokei of the Kilimanjaro region in size of skull. They 

 average considerably less than Loita Plains specimens, 

 although the extremes of the two series are quite equal in 

 dimensions. 



Nakuru Hartebeest 

 Buhalis cokei nakurce 



Bubalis nakurce Heller, 191 2, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 8, p. 6. 



Range. — Rift Valley of British East Africa ranging 

 from Lake Nakuru northward to the south shore of 

 Lake Baringo and eastward to the base of the Aberdare 

 Range. 



The hartebeests inhabiting the district near Lake 

 Nakuru have long been recognized by sportsmen as dif- 

 ferent from the common kongoni owing to their less wide- 

 spread horns. They have usually been referred to as 

 hybrids between the kongoni and the Jackson hartebeest 

 or as representing the Neumann hartebeest described by 

 Rothschild from Lake Rudolf. Their recognition as hy- 

 brids is not consistent with what is known regarding the 

 habits of the species concerned or, for that matter, of the 

 breeding habits of mammals generally. Hybrids among 

 mammals are of very rare occurrence and are produced 

 only under very unusual or abnormal circumstances, and 

 never in great numbers, at certain points in the ranges of 

 distinct species. The kongoni and Jackson hartebeests are 

 nowhere known to be associated together in the same herd, 

 although their ranges in the Rift Valley are contiguous. 

 The Nakuru hartebeest resembles closely in characters the 

 kongoni and is as widely separated from the Jackson harte- 

 beest as is that form. 



The Nakuru hartebeest is a geographical race of the 

 Coke hartebeest occupying the northwest corner of the 

 range of the species. It is most closely allied to the kon- 

 goni, which it resembles closely in size of body and color- 



