218 ANTELOPES 



" When a puku antelope is wounded, it does not, as a rule, at once 

 make for water, but usually runs straight away from the river, to seek 

 refuge amongst bush and forest. If followed and hard pressed it will, 

 however, take to the water, and swim boldly across a crocodile-infested 

 stream in order to escape its pursuers. The meat of the puku is 

 inferior to that of any other South African antelope with which I 

 am acquainted, being coarse and flavourless even when the animals 

 are in good condition. Puku does must, I think, drop their young 

 somewhat later than most other South African antelopes, probably 

 in November and December, as I do not remember to have seen any 

 newly-born fawns among the many herds of these antelopes that I 

 saw on the bank of the Chobi in September and October 1874. 

 The puku is not naturally very alert, and when I first met with it, 

 at a time when the country was almost virgin-ground for the European 

 hunter, it always appeared to be duller of sight and more easily 

 approached against the wind, of course than any other species of 

 antelope which frequented the same ground. When much persecuted, 

 however, these animals doubtless learn wisdom from experience, and 

 become more wary and more difficult to approach." 



THE LECHWI OR LECHE 



(Cobus leche] 



Lechwi, BAROTSI AND NGAMI ; Leche OR Li-gwi, MUKOLOLO ; Inya, 

 MASUBIA ; Unia, MAKUBA ; Bainanja, MUSHU KULUMBWI ; 

 Umbundu, ANGOLA ; Mumembi (male), Ngia (female), CuiLALA 

 AND CHIBISA. 



(PLATE vii, fig. 8) 



With the lechwi we come to the second of the two species of kobs 

 discovered by Livingstone and his companions. From the true kob 

 and the puku this species may be distinguished by its much longer and 

 more slender horns, which exceed twice the length of the head. With 

 the puku it agrees in the length and comparative shagginess of its 

 coat, but it is distinguished from that species by the black fronts of 

 the legs. The hind surface of the pastern is devoid of hair a 

 character which affords an easy method of distinguishing females 

 from those of the allied species. The general colour is rich rufous, 

 somewhat paler than in the Uganda race of Buffon's kob ; the under- 

 parts are white ; the legs have the aforesaid black markings ; the ears 



