THE BLACK-TAILED GNU 



(Connochates taurinus) 



THE family of Oxen (Bovidce) contains not only those animals, but 

 all other ruminants with the same type of horns hollow ones, perma- 

 nently seated on bony cores, also permanently affixed to the skull. 

 Such are the Sheep and Goats, and the numerous tribe of Antelopes, 

 which make up most of the family, but are confined to the Old World, 

 and chiefly to Africa, 



"Antelope" is used as the proverbial simile for light and elegant 

 gracefulness ; but there are Antelopes of many different shapes, and 

 our present subject, one of the best known of African Antelopes, cannot 

 be called elegant by any stretch of imagination, and does not at all 

 accord with the popular notion of an Antelope, while it does suggest 

 such incongruous animals as a Bull and a Pony, the latter of which 

 it about equals in size. 



The usual colour of the coat is, as the illustration shows, a bluish 

 grey, slightly brindled with black, whence the name Brindled Gnu, 

 often used ; but there is a certain amount of local variation, and two 

 races of the species are distinguished besides the typical South African 

 one the White-bearded Gnu from East Africa, in which the long 

 hair under the chin is white instead of black, and the Nyasaland 

 race, in which the beard is black as in the typical form, but there 

 is a white crescent across the face, which is much smoother and 

 less shaggy than in the other races. 



The sexes are much alike in general appearance, and both are 

 horned, though the bull is heavier. The calfs horns at their first 

 appearance are straight spikes set some distance apart, and only 

 acquire their peculiar and characteristic curvature as they grow. 



The Black-tailed Gnu, commonly known to hunters as the Blue 

 Wildebeest, is a widely ranging animal in Africa, the typical form 

 reaching Benguela on the West Coast, and Lake Nyasa in Central 

 Africa, while it is particularly common in the south-east part of the 



ii. 



