HARTBEESTS, BLESBOK, AND BONTEBOK 



909 



country is 



found, as the rainfall is abundant. This kind 

 called the Ban. Not a bush is to 

 be seen, and some of these plains 

 are thirty or forty miles in extent 

 each way. There is not always 

 much game to be got in the Hand, 

 but a year ago coming on to 

 ground which had not been vis- 

 ited by Europeans, I found one 

 of these plains covered with herds 

 of hartbeests, there being perhaps 

 a dozen herds in sight at one time, 

 each herd containing three or four 

 hundred individuals. Hundreds 

 of bulls were scattered singly on 

 the outskirts, and in the spaces 

 between the herds, grazing, fight- 

 ing, or lying down. The scene I 

 describe was at a distance of 

 over a hundred miles from Ber* 

 bera, and the game has probably 

 been driven far beyond that point 

 by now. ' ' 



Cooke's hartbeest is of a red- 

 dish-brown color on the upper parts 



and grayish brown beneath, the head being dark rufous in front and fulvous on the 

 sides, and thus very different from that of the sig. The horns are also shorter and 

 less widely expanded than in the latter. On the other hand, the tora antelope has 

 the whole face of a uniform pale isabelline tint, like that of the body; the horns 

 being fully as long as in the sig, but rising much more rapidly from the base, 

 then coming farther forward, and projecting much more in the backward direction. 

 Tora horns vary from twelve to nineteen and one-half inches in length. 



The konze (B. lichtensteini) is a very distinct species, inhabiting 

 all the Zambezi region and Nyassaland, characterized by its small 

 horns, which are much expanded and flattened at their bases. These horns incline 

 at first upward and outward, and then inward, with their tips directed backward 

 and upward so as to inclose a kind of vase-shaped space, their length ranging from 

 fourteen to twenty inches. The skull is also shorter than in any of the foregoing 

 species. The general color is a little lighter than that of the hartbeest; the tail, 

 knees, and the front of the legs being black, while the face is without any dark 

 markings, but the buttocks usually have a pale yellow patch, and the under parts 

 are likewise yellowish. In Nyassaland this species, according to Mr. Crawshay, is 

 very generally met with in the hills, if not too steep and rocky, and in the plains, 

 but it appears to prefer a flat or undulating country, well wooded and with inter- 

 vening open glades. It is frequently found feeding with water buck or zebras, and 



HEAD OF SWAYNE'S HARTBEEST. 

 (After Rowland Ward.) 



Konze 



