THE HARTEBEESTS AND GNUS 115 



THE BASTARD HARTEBEESTS 



Within the last few years, Mr. Lydekker, one of 

 our best known naturalists, has, after due research, 

 classified together under the genus Dama/iscus, or 

 Bastard Hartebeests, the group of antelopes most 

 nearly allied to the true hartebeests. These are 

 Hunter's antelope, the Korrigum, and its first cousins, 

 the Topi and Tiang, the Tsesseby, and the well-known 

 Bontebok and Blesbok of South Africa. 



Of these Hunter 's hartebeest (Damaliscus huntert) 

 is one of the least familiar. Found in the extreme south 

 of Somaliland, on the north bank of the Tana river, 

 this animal was first discovered by Mr. C. V. Hunter, 

 in 1888. It is of the usual hartebeest size, standing 

 about 4 feet at the withers, and is reddish-brown in 

 colour, the upper part of the face, between the horns 

 and the eyes, being decorated by a white chevron. 

 The horns, which attain as much as 26^ inches in 

 length, over the curve, are quite dissimilar to those 

 of the rest of the hartebeests or bastard hartebeests, 

 being lyrate in form, and, after an outward curve, 

 run straight up to long and sharp points. Few 

 Englishmen have as yet shot this rare and little- 

 known antelope. In shape it resembles the harte- 

 beests, frequents by preference open plains and thin 

 bush, and runs in troops of from ten to twenty. At 

 a distance, from the appearance of the horns, it might 

 be mistaken for impala. It seems likely to prove a 

 good sporting animal. 



VOL. II I 



