CH. XV] THE ROIIR 449 



me to try to kill more than the four actually needed for 

 the public (not ])rivate) Museum to which our collections 

 were ^oing. It is of solitary habits, and is found only 

 in certain vast, lonely marshes of tropical iVfrica, where 

 it is conspicuous by its extraordinary bill, dark colora- 

 tion, and sluggishness of conduct, hunting sedately in 

 the muddy shallows, or standing motionless for hours, 

 surrounded by reed-beds or by long reaches of quaking 

 and treacherous ooze. 



Next morning, while at brcakfiist on the breezy deck, 

 we spied another herd of the saddle-marked lechwe, in 

 the marsh alongside, and Kermit landed and killed one, 

 after deep wading, up to his chin in some places, and 

 much hard work in the rank grass. This buck was 

 interesting when compared with the two I had shot. 

 He was apparently a little older than either, but not 

 aged ; on the contrary, in his prime, and fat. He had 

 the white saddle-like mark on the withers and the w^hite 

 back of the neck well developed. Yet he was smaller 

 than either of mine, and the horns much smaller ; 

 indeed, they were seven inches shorter than my longest 

 ones. It looks as if, in some animals at least, the full 

 size of body and horns are reached before the white 

 saddle-markings are acquired. The horns of these 

 saddle- mark lechwes are, relati\'ely to the body, far 

 longer and finer than in other species of the genus ; 

 just as is the case with the big East African gazelle 

 when compared with other gazelles. 



That afternoon, near the mouth of the Rohr, which 

 runs into the Bahr el Ghazal, I landed and shot a good 

 buck of the Vaughan's kob, which is perhaps merely a 

 sub-species of the white- eared kob. It is a handsome 

 animal, handsomer than its close kinsman, the common 

 or Uganda kob, although much less so than its associate 



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