A JOURNEY UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 379 



dangerous and infectious disease to which the gnu is very Hable, 

 and which would render it a very undesirable member of the cattle- 

 yard. 



The animal is frequently infected with one of the QEstrid?e, or 

 Bot-flies, and suffers from them to such an extent that it ejects 

 them from its nose whenever it snorts, an act which it is very fond 

 of performing. Ordinary cattle have no love for the gnu, and on 

 one occasion, when a young gnu of only four months old was placed 

 in the yard, the cattle surrounded it and nearly killed it with their 

 horns and hoofs. 



The color of the ordinary gnu is brownish-black, sometimes 

 with a blue-gray wash. The mane is black, with the exception of 

 the lower part, which is often grayish-white, as is the lower part 

 of the tail. 



KEEPS WITHIN A CERTAIN BOUNDARY. 



The nose is covered with a tuft of reversed hair, and there is 

 a mane upon the chest. The brindled gnu may be distinguished 

 from the common gnu, or kokoon, by its convex and smooth face, 

 the hair lying towards the nose, instead of being reversed. There 

 is no mane upon the chest, and the brown hide is varied and striped 

 with gray. It is higher at the withers than the kokoon, and its 

 action is rather clumsy. It is very local in its distribution, being 

 found northwards of the Black River, and never being known to 

 cross that simple boundary. It lives in large herds, and when 

 observed, the whole herd forms in single file, and so flies from the 

 object of its terror. 



One of these animals, called in the interior the blue wildebeest, 

 was captured by Cumming in a very curious manner. The animal 

 had contrived to hitch one of his forelegs over his horns, and being 

 thus incapacitated from running, was easily intercepted and killed. 

 It had probably got into this unpleasant position while fighting. 

 The gnu is about three feet nine inches high at the shoulders, and 

 measures about six feet six inches from the nose to the root of 

 the tail. 



Sometimes the pursuit of these strange animals leads to ludic- 



