124 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



horns, of a spiral form, being restricted to the males only, 

 while the females are always of a very much lighter 

 colour than the other sex, and generally possessed of 

 white body stripes, which are not universally present in 

 the latter. 



The bushbuck, in size the smallest member of the genus, 

 is also the most widely distributed, being found through- 

 out Southern and Central Africa as far north as Abyssinia. 

 Its coloration varies very greatly, according to locality, 

 being dull and dark in the south of the continent, and 

 tending to become lighter and more distinctively marked 

 as the species is met with northwards. Thus in Cape 

 Colony the male is dark brown, with a few obscure spots 

 on his haunches, whereas, north of the Zambezi, the 

 type extending through most of Central Africa is, in 

 both sexes, of bright chestnut colour, with brilliant white 

 spottings and transverse markings. In consequence of 

 these differences, naturalists have divided the bushbucks 

 of Africa into some fifteen local sub-species ; but they 

 all merge so gradually into one another, and show so 

 many intermediate forms, that it is difficult exactly to 

 define the limits of each. 



The bushbuck is a solitary animal, being found alone, 

 or at most in pairs. The species is essentially nocturnal, 

 lying up by day in dense bush or reed beds near water, 

 and loving, above all, the densely wooded gullies, or 

 kloofs, as they are called in South Africa, which run 

 down hill-sides or clothe the banks of small tributaries of 

 larger streams in more level country. It browses on 

 the leaves of various small shrubs and trees, and eats 

 grass sparingly when the latter is fresh and green ; it is 

 also rather ardently attached to garden produce, such as 

 beans and pumpkins a weakness which sometimes calls 

 down wrath upon its head. Roots and tubers form 



