THE ANTELOPES AND GAZELLES 169 



hotbeds of malaria, and it is scarcely likely that 

 many British sportsmen will care to venture their 

 lives in search of an animal so difficult of access and 

 so elusive. Cameroons names for this buck are 

 (north) Kawe ; Cameroons river, Mburi ; Congo, 

 Nkaya and Nkoko. 



The Situtunga (Tragelaphus spekei) is, assuredly, 

 one of the most singular of all the African antelopes. 

 In horns, marking, and other characteristics it is a 

 true bushbuck yet a bushbuck which has completely 

 adapted itself to a semi-aquatic existence. It must 

 have taken long ages of the past to have effected 

 this transformation, and the influences which induced 

 the ancestors of this antelope to betake themselves 

 to a watery existence must have been overpowering 

 indeed. The situtunga is now certainly the most 

 water-loving of all antelopes of the world, standing 

 for the greater part of its existence belly-deep in 

 liquid, and, when alarmed or pursued, going yet 

 farther into the deeps, and, sinking itself below the 

 surface, concealing itself as far as possible beneath 

 some overhanging bed of papyrus reed, allowing 

 only its nostrils to remain above water. The natives 

 are well aware of this habit, and when Major Serpa 

 Pinto made his journey from Benguela to Natal, 

 they no doubt endeavoured to explain to him the 

 situtunga's methods of concealing itself. The 

 explorer thereafter published in his book the extra- 

 ordinary yarn that this antelope sinks itself for long 

 periods, and is even able to sleep far beneath the 

 surface of the water. 



