228 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



and the skin went rotten and was not preserved, and 

 the description of the animal in question may have 

 been written from memory by a man who was not 

 a trained observer, some want of accuracy was to 

 be expected. The fact that the shaggy hair which 

 hangs from the neck and chest, and fringes the 

 flanks of the male inyala, and is such a very notice- 

 able characteristic of this species of antelope, was 

 not mentioned by Captain Faulkner, is certainly 

 very curious ; still, I am inclined to the belief that 

 the animal which he shot on the shore of Lake 

 Nyasa was an inyala. If not, there exists in that 

 district a nearly allied species still unknown to 

 science, which I do not think is likely, though it 

 would be worth while to make careful inquiries 

 amongst the natives living near Cape Maclear as 

 to all the antelopes of the bushbuck tribe with spiral 

 horns with which they are acquainted, in order to 

 clear up the mystery. 



The foregoing notes represent all the information 

 I have been able to gather from the works of 

 travellers and sportsmen concerning the habits and 

 distribution of the inyala, and I will now give a 

 short account of a journey undertaken by myself 

 to the Usutu river, in Amatongaland, in search 

 of these antelopes, during which I was able to 

 obtain some knowledge of them at first hand. 



It had long been my ambition to add the head of 

 an inyala, shot by myself, to my collection of hunting 

 trophies, but year after year had rolled by, without 

 my having been able to spare the time to under- 

 take a special journey to the country near Delagoa 

 Bay in search of it, until I recognised that, unless 

 I made a determined effort, my large collection of 

 South African antelope heads would for ever remain 

 incomplete and unsatisfactory, ungraced as it would 

 have been by the spoils of one of the handsomest 

 species. 



