902 



THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



very aged bulls the two horns approximate at their bases, so as to form a helmet- 

 shaped mass completely covering the part of the skull, as in the Cape buffalo. 



There are two well-marked species of wildebeest, confined to South and East Af- 

 rica, both of which are represented in our illustrations. Of these the common, or 

 white-tailed wildebeest (Connochcetes gnu] , is strictly South African; while the blue, 

 or brindled wildebeest (C. taurina), is not found to the south of the Orange river, 

 and on the east side of the continent extends in the Uganda district some distance to 

 the north of the Victoria Nyanza. The former species, which stands about four and 



THE WHITE-TAILED WILDEBEEST. 

 (One-fifteenth natural size.) 



one-half feet at the shoulder, is distinguished by the long hair fringing the chest, 

 the long white tail, and the uniform coloration of the body. On the other hand, the 

 blue wildebeest has no long hair on the chest, the tail is black and shorter, the sides 

 of the withers are marked with dark transverse stripes, and the hair on the face lies 

 more smoothly. In the ordinary form of this species, the fringe of long hair on the 

 throat is black, but it is white in a variety from Uganda. The horns of the males 

 of this species have a spread of from two feet to two feet two inches; and in a speci- 

 men in which the spread was two feet one and three-fourths inches, the greatest 



