2 23 ANTELOPES 



not swim, but progress by a succession of bounds from the bottom. 

 When at last the depth forces them to swim, they show themselves 

 very capable. The young are dropped towards the end of the dry 

 season in October and November. 



" The flesh I thought good, though the fat is hard and clogs on 

 the teeth and the roof of the mouth whilst being eaten. I once 

 saw a wounded lechvvi that was lying down spring forwards and drive 

 the point of one of its sharp horns right into the chest of a Kafir 

 who was approaching in face of it, puncturing one of his lungs and 

 inflicting what might have been a bad wound. I was, however, close 

 behind, and when it sprang forwards the Kafir was stooping to seize 

 it by the horn, and I believe that it injured him only by accident, and 

 was really trying to escape. At any rate I have never seen any other 

 buck of this species make an attempt to defend itself with its horns 

 when wounded. The lechwi is very tenacious of life, and I have been 

 astounded at the distance one of these animals has run after being shot 

 through the heart." 



THE BLACK LECHWI 

 {Cobus sniithemani) 



Closely related to the last, this species was named by the present 

 writer in the Zoological Society's Pi'oceedings for 1899 (p. 982) on 

 the evidence of the flat skin of a buck obtained by Mr. F. Smitheman 

 in the Lake Mweru district of Barotsiland. Young males, and females 

 at all ages, appear to be coloured much the same as in the true lechwi ; 

 but in the fully adult bucks the upper-parts of the body and the front 

 and outer surfaces of the limbs, with the exception of a portion of the 

 thighs, become dark blackish brown ; the dark area also extending 

 along the sides of the neck as far as a line connecting the ear with the 

 gape of the mouth. The back is, however, lighter than the flanks, and 

 the face is wholly chestnut. 



This species appears to be confined to the Lake Mweru district, 

 including part of north-eastern Rhodesia. From the latter district an 

 antelope has been described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild on 

 p. 237 of the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1907 as a new 

 species, under the name of Cobus robertsi. It appears, however, to be 

 based on the skin and horns of an immature buck of the present 

 species. 



