330 ANTELOPES 



or four fairly defined stripes. On bushbuck from the lower Zambesi 

 the stripes and spots are similarly arranged, but on a dark red ground ; 

 while the beautiful Chobi bushbuck \ornatus\ is also dark red, but with 

 as many as fifty spots on each side, and eight well-defined stripes. 

 All South African bushbuck have, however, the bare ' neck-collar,' the 

 white bars on throat and chest, an erectile mane of white and dark 

 hairs from shoulder to tail along the back, the normal face-markings, 

 and black-tipped tail ; while in all the disposition of the white markings 

 on the limbs is similar. The young of the Zambesi bushbucks are less 

 spotted than the adults, but exactly the reverse is the case in the more 

 southern forms. In parts of Cape Colony a browner-coloured bush- 

 buck, said to be longer in the leg than the other, is met with. The 

 maximum shoulder-height I have recorded from the Colony is 2 feet 

 9 inches for a ram, and 2 feet 5 for a ewe. 



" The cry of the bushbuck is a short, deep bark, uttered by both 

 sexes when alarmed, or on seeing anything suspicious, the nature of 

 which they cannot understand. 



" These antelopes are found in suitable localities throughout South 

 Africa, and, owing to their retiring habits, will be the last to remain. 

 They are strictly preserved in Cape Colony for six months in each 

 year ; and this fact, together with the security afforded by the vast 

 areas of scrub-jungle in the country, has conduced to the perpetuation 

 of the species in larger numbers than anywhere else in South Africa. 

 Thickly wooded country, or open ground intersected by deep bush- 

 kloofs, are the favourite resorts of bushbuck. A certain amount of low 

 bush and scrub is necessary, for in actual forest-country — unless there 

 is some such covert near at hand — they are seldom found. In the 

 great Chiringoma forest of Portuguese East Africa, and also in the 

 Chiperoni forest of Mozambique, for instance, I met with none, while 

 on the scrubby fringe of both they are numerous. Wherever I have 

 met with bushbuck — except in Cape Colony — it has been in the 

 neighbourhood of water ; but in the latter country they are numerous 

 in the dry arid jungle-tracts of the Humansdorp district miles from any 

 water. Their food consists chiefly of the leaves and shoots of various 

 aromatic shrubs, but a certain quantity of grass is also eaten. In the 

 dry districts of Cape Colony these antelope freely eat the leaves of 

 the ' spek-boom ' ; whence, I think, their ability to do without water. 

 Although they seldom eat the young maize-plants in native gardens, 

 they eagerly devour beans, pumpkins, and sweet potato leaves, and 

 underground nuts. Bushbuck run in pairs, but when the ewes are in 

 young the rams lead solitary lives. They seldom leave their retreats 



