ROAN ANTELOPE 



HIPPOTRAGUS EQUINUS 



Swahili : Nelgut. Masai : Lalgut 



THIS is an animal I do not pretend to 

 know much about. 

 It is of a grizzled red roan colour, 

 with a long mane and huge ears, and 

 its face is marked in front, something like an oryx's, 

 with a big black blob. Its annulated horns have 

 a backward sweep, something like a water-buck's, 

 but turned the wrong way, and regularly di- 

 vergent, besides being more curved. A friend 

 of mine mistook a roan for a water-buck once 

 when the former was "on the list"! He only 

 saw its head, I must admit. The females carry 

 horns, but they are thinner. It is quite hard to 

 distinguish between the two sexes in a herd from 

 some distance away. 



I have only met roan for ten days, and man- 

 aged to secure a nice head. The animals being 

 only found in certain districts makes it hard to 

 describe " roan country," but it frequents grassy 

 bush, and is quite partial to hills thrown in now 

 and again. It likes a well- watered country, and 



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