ANGOLAN LECHWE AND REED BUCK 265 



nearly 4 feet high at the shoulder, weighs from 400 

 to 450 lb., has a coat of long dark hair, the carriage 

 of a stag, and belongs to the dcjassa group of these 

 animals, which usually have a white patch on 

 the rump instead of the white/elliptical ring of the 

 type water buck. (Cobus elipsiprymnus). It differs 

 from the other Mefassa water bucks by its darker 

 coat, which in an old buck looks almost black, and 

 the absence of the white rurap patch. 'The beauti- 

 ful lyrate hqtrns measure up to 29 inches. The 

 water buck /is a grazer, living in herds of ten to 

 twenty, usually near water, in open grass plains and 

 forests. TJie dung, when formed, resembles that 

 of the elattid, but is smaller in size; when soft 

 (rainy season or spring) it looks like that of cattle. 

 They are wary animals, bmt more readily tracked 

 than m0st antelopes, as they seem to keep to 

 localize^ feeding - grounds and lying -up i places. 

 I once/ had the unusual experience of sitting on 

 what l| thought was a dead water buck, and being 

 suddenly knocked over' by the animal, wjflich had 

 been concussed by a bullet which grazed the spine. 

 I am glad to say that I persuaded myself to let 

 the buck escape. 



The ANGOLAN LECHWE. One of these animals, 

 called by the natives " songue," was wounded 

 on the Loando River and the head recovered two 

 days later. Fired at from a great distance, I 

 thought at first that the aninal was a Buff on' s cob. 

 These "songue" were met with in herds of from 

 twenty to fifty, grazing by the banks of the Loando, 

 Coanza, and Longoe Rivers, and the natives in- 

 formed me that these animals were to be found 



