THE ANTELOPES AND GAZELLES 161 



although no more than 50 inches over the curve 

 and 39 inches in a straight line, have a wonderful 

 spread, and tape no less than four feet half an inch 

 from tip to tip. 



Koodoos are essentially bush-loving animals, and 

 delight in country broken by low hills, where streams 

 of water, plenty of bush, and occasional timber are 

 to be found. As a rule they are met with in small 

 bands from five to ten in number, but occasionally 

 larger troops are encountered. In the woodland 

 country fringing the Botletli river, Ngamiland, when 

 I was hunting there some years since, one or two 

 troops, numbering from twenty to thirty, were to be 

 found ranging, curiously enough, the waterless forests 

 in which we were hunting giraffe. No doubt these 

 koodoos drank every other day or so at the river ; but 

 to do this they had a march of some 15 or 20 miles 

 before reaching water. I have met with koodoo in 

 another very waterless habitat the Lower Molopo, 

 in British Bechuanaland, where little if any water was 

 to be found. This was shortly after the rains, how- 

 ever, and it is just possible that, amid the dense bush 

 and forest of this region, these animals found a pool 

 or two of water unknown to human beings. As a 

 rule koodoo are looked upon by African hunters 

 as among the antelopes to be found not very far from 

 water. 



Occasionally, in moving about from one feeding 

 ground to another, especially when tempted by such 

 luxuries as young grass and the like, koodoo may be 

 found in open ground, where they can be run down 



