BONGO 317 



THE BONGO 



{Boocerais eiiryceros) 



Bongo, Fanti 

 (Plate xiii, fig. 3) 



Originally supposed to be confined to West Africa, this brilliantly 

 coloured antelope is now known to range right across the forest-zone 

 into British East Africa. It was long classed with the bushbucks and 

 harnessed antelopes, although separated generically by Dr. Gray as 

 Euryceros. That name proved, however, to be preoccupied when the 

 right of the species to generic distinction was fully demonstrated ; and 

 Mr. Thomas, in the Annals and Maga.znic of Natural Histoiy for 1902 

 (sen 7, vol. X. p. 309), accordingly proposed that it should be replaced 

 by Boocerais, in allusion to the ox-like tail. 



Agreeing with the elands in the presence of horns in both sexes, 

 and in the tufted tail, the bongo differs by the smooth open spiral 

 formed by the horns, which thus approximate to those of the nyala, 

 and also by the absence of a dewlap and throat-fringe, and of a 

 'f bush " of hair on the forehead ; the body-hair being everywhere short. 

 In height the bongo stands about 48 inches. The ears are of the 

 broad type characteristic of forest-dwelling antelopes in general ; and 

 the glossy coat is bright chestnut-red, with a white chevron on the 

 forehead, a white crescent on the breast, and from about ten to thirteen 

 narrow white vertical stripes on the sides of the body. The tail-tuft is 

 black, and the tips of the otherwise brown horns wear yellow. The 

 record horn-length is 35 inches in the western, and 33!^ inches in the 

 eastern race ; the longest pair of female horns measuring 30:5^ inches on 

 the front curve. 



The typical race, of which complete skins were first brought to 

 Europe by Paul du Chaillu, is a native of West Africa, ranging from 

 Liberia through Fanti to the Ashkankulu Mountains, the Gaboon, and 

 Sierra Leone. 



The eastern race {B. euryceros Isaaci), which was named by Mr. 

 Thomas in the paper already cited, was first obtained in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Ravine Station of British East Africa, and supposed to be,, 

 on the evidence of its horns alone, near akin to the nyala. It differs, 

 according to Mr. Thomas, by the larger, heavier, and more convex 

 skull of the bucks, which also display certain other distinctive features- 



