336 ANTELOPES 



from the other bushbucks as the representative of a distinct genus, 

 Limnotragus ; but since the feature in question is purely one of 

 adaptation to surroundings, while in other respects the situtunga 

 agrees very closely with less aberrant bushbucks, it seems unnecessary 

 to grant it more than subgeneric rank, even if this be really advisable. 

 If a special English name be considered advisable for the situtunga, 

 marsh-buck has been suggested as an appropriate title. Typically an 

 eastern species, the situtunga was originally described in 1 864 by 

 Dr. P. L. Sclater on the evidence of specimens brought home by the 

 great explorer Captain Speke from the neighbourhood of the Victoria 

 Nyanza. Sixteen years later the same naturalist, on the evidence of 

 a female skin, gave the name of Tragelaphus gratus to the western 

 representative of the species. In 1898 the Hon. Walter Rothschild 

 suggested, however (in Novitates Zoologica, vol. v. p. 206), on the 

 evidence of information supplied by Mr. Oscar Neumann, that the 

 latter could scarcely be regarded as more than a local race of the 

 former, since the two appeared to intergrade to the westward of 

 Uganda and Unyoro. At the same time Mr. Rothschild separated 

 the situtunga of the Zambesi basin and thence northward to Lakes 

 Nyasa and Tanganyika as a distinct species, under the name of 

 T. selousi, on account of the two sexes being coloured alike. 



It appears, however, preferable to regard all these three types, 

 together with a fourth described subsequently by Mr. O. Neumann, as 

 races of a species presenting local variations analogous to those of 

 the bushbuck. 



In this wide sense the species will be characterised by the great 

 elongation of the main hoofs, the relatively large size of the lateral 

 hoofs, and the longer and more twisted horns, as compared with those 

 of the nyala. There is also no long fringe of hair on the throat 

 comparable to that of the allied species. The face has the usual 

 bushbuck-markings, with the white chevron more pronounced in some 

 cases than in the nyala. The height at the shoulder ranges from 

 about 43 to 45 inches; the record horn-lengths being 35^ inches in 

 the eastern and 34^ in the western race. 



The range of this species extends on the eastern side of the con- 

 tinent from the Zambesi and Chobi valleys, northwards to Nyasaland, 

 Tanganyika, and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and thence westwards through 

 Uganda and Unyoro to Senegambia, Nigeria, the Gaboon, Congoland, 

 and the Cameroons. 



In the typical eastern race, from the Victoria Nyanza, the coat, 

 which is long and silky, is uniformly greyish brown on the upper-parts 



