THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 327 



referred. If to kongoni, then possibly the other, smaller 

 variety, will be nakuru, although its description and hab- 

 itat do not square with the books. If nakuru, then the 

 smaller variety must be undescribed. While in the country 

 itself we always considered the larger, red tame species as 

 the kongoni, and the smaller as Neumanii; but according 

 to later classifications this seems impossible. For con- 

 venience I shall refer to this •animal as Coke's. 



It is common from 01 Sambu (above Lake Natron) to 

 the Mara River, but not nearly as abundant as the topi, 

 thus reversing the condition on the Loieta Plains. Gre- 

 garious, curious, tame — the typical ^'kongoni" of British 

 East Africa in habit, except that here it frequents brush 

 and shade freely, and may often be found in what might 

 almost be described as thickets. In that respect our ob- 

 servations and those of the Frenchman, Vaase, stand to- 

 gether, and practically alone. 



Roosevelt's remarkably complete and interesting account 

 of the habits of these hartebeeste fails to mention their 

 apparent altruism in warning other animals of danger. Of 

 course the exact mental attitude remains to be proved, 

 but the fact is that on several occasions I have seen harte- 

 beeste that were not in danger themselves come dehberately 

 into danger in order to carry off herds of zebra, wilde- 

 beeste or other hartebeeste that were in the line of a stalk. 

 Both Cuninghame and myself observed this several times. 

 Generally it seemed to be one or two individuals that thus 

 took the job, and not a group. 



14. ^Hartebeeste {huhalis cokei [.?]). — Beside the 



large red kongoni with the points of the horns slightly 



