BUSHBUCK 323 



THE BUSHBUCK 



( Tragelaplius scriptus] 



Assali, DANAKIL ; Bata, M'KUA ; Boschbok, CAPE DUTCH ; Cliiwala- 

 wala, CHILALA AND CHIBISA ; Decula, ABYSSINIA ; Dol, 

 SOMALI ; Ibawara, LOWER ZAMBESI ; Imbabala, SwAZI AND 

 BATONGA ; Inkonka (male), Imbabala (female), ZULU ; ATbabala, 

 BAROTSI ; M'babala AND Serolo buchuhu, NGAMI ; Maso AND 

 Buliimgito, HAUSA ; Mbawara, SWAHILI ; Ngabi, WAGANDA ; 

 Scrolobutuku, BAMANGWATO ; Umgurungu, MAKUBA. 



(PLATE xiii, figs. 7-10) 



With this species we come to a group of medium-sized antelopes 

 differing from the bongo by the absence of horns in the female and of 

 a terminal tuft to the tail, which is of medium length and bushy 

 throughout, in both sexes. The horns of the bucks have an open 

 spiral, with somewhat more than one complete turn. Very marked 

 sexual differences in colour usually occur ; the females being nearly 

 always chestnut with white body -stripes, while the males are often 

 darker and more uniformly coloured. All the members of the group 

 are essentially forest -antelopes, but some have taken to a life in 

 marshes and swamps, for which their feet are specially modified. 



The bushbuck, as typified by the West African Tragelaplius 

 scriptus, is the smallest representative of the genus, ranging from 

 30 to 36 inches in height, and weighing from 100 to 170 Ib. The 

 maximum recorded horn-length is 19^ inches (in the southern race). 

 These bushbucks range practically all over Africa with the exception 

 of bare plains and deserts, and present extraordinary local variation 

 in colouring, as well as remarkable differences in regard to the hair on 

 the neck. In some, for instance, the hairing in this region is normal ; 

 but in others there is a kind of collar round the lower part of the 

 neck on which the hairs are quite short, and almost velvet-like in 

 appearance, looking, in fact, as though this part had been shorn. In 

 a bushbuck from the Cameroons (not yet named) the whole neck is 

 stated to be short-haired. The males have a crest of long hairs down 

 the middle of the back, which may be white and erectile, but in other 

 cases is black, as it is almost invariably in females. When fully 

 developed, the white markings on the body take the form of an upper 



