136 ANTELOPES 



a few years ago in western and northern Bechuanaland, Ngamiland, 

 Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa, Ovampoland, and Damaraland. 

 Xorth of the Zambesi, where it is represented by distinct local races, 

 the species is particularly numerous in the Kilimanjaro district and on 

 the Athi plains of British East Africa. From the Orange River 

 Colony and the adjacent districts the brindled gnu has long since been 

 exterminated. 



To the north of the Zambesi the typical southern animal is replaced 

 by a race, Connochcetes taurinus joJmstoni, characterised by the frequent, 

 if not universal, presence of a white chevron on the forehead, associated 

 with a black throat-fringe (fig. 36). This Nyasa race inhabits an area 

 lying partly in British and partly in Portuguese territory, not improbably 

 bounded on the north by Lake Nyasa, on the west by the Shir river, 

 on the south by the Zambesi, and on the east by the Makua district 

 of Mozambique. The face is mainly chestnut, and the body-colour 

 apparently browner than in the typical race. The Nyasa gnu was 

 named by Dr. P. L. Sclater in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 

 1896. The brindled gnu of the Kibayu district has been separated by 

 Mr. Oscar Neumann as C. t, hecki ; it is stated to come very close to 

 the next race, but has black mingled with the white of the throat- 

 fringe, and the forehead greyish white or bright rufous. 



Most distinct of all is the British East African or white-bearded 

 race, C. t. albojubatus, from the districts north of Kilimanjaro, including 

 the Athi plains, Ukambani, and other parts of British East Africa. 

 It is broadly distinguished by the throat-fringe being wholly yellowish 

 white and the face black and grey, while there are a few white hairs in 

 the mane. In one phase the body-colour is pale and in another dark, 

 as is exemplified by a pair of male heads from the Guaso Nyera 

 Valley, British East Africa, presented to the British Museum in 1908 

 by Mr. R. J. Cuninghame. One of these heads shows, moreover, a 

 white chevron, which is wanting in its fellow. As in the case of the 

 eland, there seems, indeed, to be a good deal of individual variation 

 with regard to the development of this chevron. The head shown in 

 fig. 37 has, for instance, only a rudiment of this mark, while a gnu 

 living in the Berlin Zoological Gardens in 1907 had a chestnut 

 chevron, with the area between the horns also chestnut, but the rest of 

 the face dark. 



From the white-tailed species this gnu is distinguished by the circum- 

 stance that it does not arch its neck, and carries its ungainly head low. 



" Blue wildebeest," writes Mr. H. A. Bryden, " are gregarious and 

 usually run in troops of from twenty to fifty. In districts where they 



