XXIV 



GNUS AND DUIKERS 



GNU is the Hottentot name of the weird antelope 

 which the early Dutch settlers of South Africa named 

 the Wildebeest ; they regarded it as a wild form of 

 domestic cattle. 



Gnus indulge in extraordinary antics when a 

 waggon or a horseman approaches their grazing 

 grounds. These excited movements are particularly 

 odd on account of the extreme grotesqueness of the 

 performer. The curious downward curving horns, the 

 upright mane, the long hair on its face form a comical 

 set of features worthy of such a droll comedian. 



The white-tailed gnu is nearly extinct : it was very 

 common in South Africa in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century. The brindled species derived its 

 name from the hair on its neck and the sides of its 

 body being disposed in vertical bands of differently 

 directed hairs. 



The horns in the young gnus are straight spikes ; as 

 the animal becomes adult they curve downwards. 

 It is strange that such a simple fact was not 

 appreciated until 1889, a century after these animals 

 were discovered by the Dutch settlers. 



Wildebeests are often seen on the Athi plains. They 

 are not so common or so widely distributed in British 

 East Africa as hartebeests. The gnus suffered almost 

 as badly as buffaloes and kudus from rinderpest, which 



IBB 



