322 ANTELOPES 



sake of any salt it may contain. As for voice, bongo do not bark 

 like bushbuck and kudu, but occasionally make a noise like eland. 

 When disturbed, however, they generally dash straight off without any 

 other sound than that made by crashing through the undergrowth. 

 They are generally found in small family-parties, and, although at 

 night the male may walk about and feed by himself, he generally 

 joins a female or two so as to lie near them during the daytime. 

 Their method of making their way through the dense bush is to move 

 in a crouching position, with the neck outstretched and almost level 

 with the ground, and the horns placed flat along the back. In this 

 attitude the whole body takes the form of a wedge, with the nose as 

 the point ; and the animal has only to slip its nose through or under 

 the hanging lianas and creepers, and they will slide automatically 

 back over the horns as it presses through, and off the back, generally 

 closing in again after it has passed. If any resistance is met with, 

 the massive weight soon breaks or pushes the offending branch out of 

 the way, while the horns protect the whole of the body from injury, 

 except the flanks, which sometimes get scratched or worn. The huge 

 ears must be rather in the way, although probably necessary to 

 quickness of hearing ; and they are generally rubbed bare of hair at 

 the back. The horns of old animals are also much worn on their 

 front surface from the continual friction of branches and leaves. 



" Bongo prefer to go under an obstacle rather than over, and 

 practically never jump to clear anything in the way, as does a bush- 

 buck. It would seem, however, that when they pass over an obstacle 

 they take it in their stride, for the ground is never cut up, as it would 

 be in the case of a jump. It is incredible what small holes in the 

 undergrowth they manage to get through or under. From the habit 

 of throwing their horns back when going through undergrowth, an old 

 animal, especially a male, wears quite a bare patch on the centre 

 of his back from rubbing it with the tips of his horns." 



Du Chaillu, who believed himself to be the discoverer of the bongo, 

 gave it the name of Tragelaphus albovirgatus. It had, however, been 

 named euryceros, on the evidence of a pair of horns from the west coast, 

 so early as 1836. In Du Chaillu's Adventures in Equatorial Africa 

 will be found a woodcut of a herd of bongo in which all the members 

 are represented with horns. Whether this was done with knowledge 

 that the females are horned is uncertain. 



