ANTELOPES 81 



They have, however, a partiality for shady patches of 

 bush or forest, wherein they may shelter themselves 

 during the hot hours. The troops are small, seldom, if 

 ever, composed of more than ten individuals, and oftener 

 family parties of from three to six only are seen. The 

 young animals are pale chestnut in colour. 



The tsessebe has the reputation of being the swiftest 

 of all South African antelopes. Like his cousin, the 

 hartebeest, he moves off at a lumbering canter, going 

 " on his shoulders " and looking very awkward, but if 

 badly scared, or pressed, he can lay himself out like a 

 racehorse, and move at a pace which defies the efforts 

 of the best shooting pony to rival. He is on the whole 

 rather a confiding, slow-witted animal, often beset by 

 a fatal curiosity. When alarmed he snorts, and when 

 dying, almost always groans in a very characteristic 

 manner. Single tsessebe bulls are often found attached 

 to troops of other species, notably wildebeest and zebra. 

 The hoof is very large for the size of the animal. 



Topi, Tiang, and Korrigum, are names applied to the 

 northern representative of the tsessebe from which it 

 differs mainly in its more curved back and goatlike horns. 

 It is spread from Senegambia and the interior of West 

 Africa, through the Sudan, to the valleys of the Upper 

 Nile and Congo, and thence to British East Africa, where 

 it is found in great numbers locally, though large areas 

 seem entirely avoided by it. It apparently does not 

 range for more than a couple of degrees or so south of 

 the Equator. In general habits it appears to be not 

 very dissimilar from the tsessebe, though found in larger 

 herds. The calves are very similar in colour to those of 

 the latter, and I saw a good many not yet old enough 

 to join the herds, near Muhoroni to the east of Lake 

 Victoria, at the end of October. 



