DOWN THE NILE; THE GIANT ELAND 523 



It is of solitary habits and is found only in certain vast, 

 lonely marshes of tropical Africa, where it is conspicuous 

 by its extraordinary bill, dark coloration, and sluggishness 

 of conduct, hunting sedately in the muddy shallows, or 

 standing motionless for hours, surrounded by reedbeds or 

 by long reaches of quaking and treacherous ooze. 



Next morning while at breakfast on the breezy deck 

 we spied another herd of the saddle-marked lechwe, in 

 the marsh alongside; and Kermit landed and killed one, 

 after deep wading, up to his chin in some places, and much 

 hard work in the rank grass. This buck was interesting 

 when compared with the two I had shot. He was appar- 

 ently a little older than either, but not aged; on the con- 

 trary, in his prime, and fat. He had the white saddle-like 

 mark on the withers, and the white back of the neck, well 

 developed. Yet he was smaller than either of mine, and 

 the horns much smaller; indeed they were seven inches 

 shorter than my longest ones. It looks as if, in some ani- 

 mals at least, the full size of body and horns were reached 

 before the white saddle markings are acquired. The horns 

 of these saddle-marked lechwes are, relatively to the body, 

 far longer and finer than in other species of the genus; just 

 as is the case with the big East African gazelle when com- 

 pared with other gazelles. 



That afternoon, near the mouth of the Rohr, which 

 runs into the Bahr el Ghazal, I landed and shot a good 

 buck, of the Vaughn's kob; which is perhaps merely a 

 subspecies of the white-eared kob. It is a handsome ani- 

 mal, handsomer than its close kinsman, the common or 

 Uganda kob; although much less so than its associate, the 

 saddle-marked lechwe. Its hooves are like those of the or- 

 dinary kobs and waterbucks, not in the least like those 

 of the saddleback; so that, although the does are colored 

 alike, there is no chance of mistaking any lechwe doe for 

 any true kob doe. We found these kobs in much drier 

 ground than the saddlebacks, and therefore they were 

 easier to get at. The one I shot was an old ram, accom- 



