1 68 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



situtunga, having the same curiously elongated hoofs, 

 and frequenting the spongy marshes and flooded 

 plains just as does that water-loving antelope. This 

 bushbuck stands about 3 feet 7 inches at the withers, 

 and is remarkable as having, with the exception of 

 the situtunga, longer and more twisted horns than 

 any of the group to which it belongs. It approaches, 

 in fact, in this respect, very nearly to the koodoo, 

 its big second cousin. The horns, which are stout 

 and strongly twisted, attain as much as 34^ inches 

 over the curve and 28^ inches in a straight line. 

 The coat is thick, somewhat like that of a waterbuck, 

 and, in the full-grown males, is of a very dark 

 reddish brown hue, tinged here and there with black 

 and grey. The face is spotted with white, the body 

 striped, and the hind-quarters white spotted, as with 

 others of this family. The young males and ewes 

 are bright reddish yellow in colour. The habitat of 

 this bushbuck is to be found in the northern portion 

 of the Congo Free State, the Cameroons, the Gaboon, 

 and some portions of Nigeria and the Gambia. It 

 is a very shy animal, going in pairs, and frequenting 

 thick vegetation in marshy districts. Hitherto this 

 antelope has been almost unknown to European 

 sportsmen. Sir Harry Johnston shot a specimen in 

 the Cameroons delta years ago, and remarks that the 

 animal did not seem to be able to move very quickly 

 through the dense vegetation. The localities in 

 which this bushbuck is found are, besides being 

 singularly inaccessible, owing to the marshy nature 

 of the tropical jungle, in which it secretes itself, 



