3i8 ANTELOPES 



too minute to be mentioned here. The horns, moreover, are believed 

 to be somewhat more massive, and perhaps less angulated, than in the 

 typical race ; while the colour is thought to be a richer and brighter 

 rufous. At most, the distinctions appear to be slight and relatively 

 unimportant, although probably sufficient to justify racial separation. 



When the eastern race was first described, there was no information 

 with regard to the presence of horns in the females of the western 

 form. It is, however, now definitely known that the females of both 

 races are horned. 



The following letter, by the present writer, from the Field for 

 1907 in reference to the occurrence of the species in Sierra Leone, 

 may be quoted at length : — 



" As very few British sportsmen appear to have previously bagged 

 the West African bongo, it may be of interest to note that a specimen 

 was shot in July last by Lieut. H. A. Carter, of the West African 

 Regiment, on the Uabole river, some seventy miles north-east of 

 Freetown, Sierra Leone, in a country covered with thin bush and 

 elephant-grass. The animal appears to have been a solitary bull, 

 and, strange to say, is stated to have come almost through the hut- 

 barracks at the Batkanu station. When it caught sight of Mr. Carter 

 it charged at once, but was stopped short in its rush, while as it lay in 

 extremis a native hunter, in order apparently to display his prowess, 

 fired a shot at still closer quarters, breaking the right horn asunder. 

 The specific identity of the animal is rendered certain by photographs 

 of the skin and horns forwarded by Major W. Gillman to Mr. Rowland 

 Ward. In Sclater and Thomas's Book of Antelopes the range of the 

 western race of the bongo (the only one then known) is stated to be 

 from Liberia to the Gaboon, so the record from Sierra Leone adds 

 a very considerable northward extension to its previously known dis- 

 tribution. It is, however, interesting to note that in the work just 

 cited reference is made to a horn from Sierra Leone, figured by 

 Afzelius in his essay on antelopes, published at Upsala in 1795, which 

 the authors consider may possibly be that of a bongo. The fact that 

 the animal is now definitely known to inhabit that district lends strong 

 support to the suggestion." 



The following notes are abbreviated from an anonymous account 

 published in the Field {or 1908 on the habits and mode of occurrence 

 of the eastern race : — 



" Up to the present time the bongo has defied all the white 

 sportsmen's efforts to bring it to bag. The reason for this is that it 

 lives in the dense forest, matted and twined with lianas and creepers 



