102 ANTELOPES 



with ant-hills some 20 to 25 feet high, and for miles and miles to 

 the far horizon nothing in those days met the eye but the greyish- 

 green undulating plain, the immense herds of dark red hartebeests, or 

 other game, and the red spires of the ant-hills. A herd of these 

 hartebeests, if in little explored country, would usually allow the 

 hunter to approach within 200 yards before going off at a gallop. 

 Although clumsy to look at, this hartebeest is one of the fastest, and 

 probably the most enduring, of all antelopes. The old bulls in a 

 herd can be distinguished by their dark colour and thick horns as 

 compared with the cows. 



" The best way to make a good bag of these hartebeests is to pick 

 out the single bulls, which are to be seen grazing apart from the herds: 

 they are not so shy as the herd-animals, carry good horns, and will 

 not be mistaken for cows. Where they have been much disturbed, it 

 will probably be difficult to get shots at under 300 or 400 yards. 

 The Lee-Metford rifle is very accurate at these distances, and as each 

 miss throws up a puff of red dust from the ground, thereby assisting 

 to correct the aim, it cannot be called unsportsmanlike to fire at 

 single bulls at such a range, provided no shots are fired at random 

 into a herd." 



THE KONGONI OR COKE'S HARTEBEEST 



(Bubalis cokei] 

 Kongoni, SWAHILI 

 (PLATE iv, fig. 6) 



In this, the third, representative of the group with bracket-shaped 

 horns, the pedicle is of moderate height, the horns are relatively short 

 and thick, the general colour is uniform bright rufous fawn, with the 

 under-lip somewhat browner, the lower portion of the rump paler, and 

 the hind-legs whitish, while the long tail has the crest of black hairs 

 extending unusually high up its hind surface. The shoulder-height is 

 about 48 or 49 inches, the weight in one bull was 312 lb., and the 

 record horn-length is 20^ inches. 



The kongoni is an eastern species, inhabiting German East Africa, 

 where it is found from Usagara northwards to Kilimanjaro and Masai- 

 land, and appears to be represented by a local race north of Lake 



