154 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



fastidiousness in such matters . I recollect ' ' an old hand, ' ' 

 who was horrified at being asked to share a meal of water- 

 buck meat, partaking with relish several days later of a 

 portion of the identical joint, which had in the meantime 

 been properly cooked ; doubtless if he had been told the 

 nature of what he was eating he would not have expressed 

 the same satisfaction. 



Waterbuck are highly scented animals, and their not 

 disagreeable odour is easily perceptible to the nostrils 

 even at some distance, when the air hangs damp and heavy. 



THE SING-SING WATERBUCK. The sing-sing is easily 

 distinguishable from the common waterbuck in possessing 

 a continuous white patch on the hindquarters, instead of a 

 white ring. It is also decidedly more rufous in its general 

 colour, and is more strongly marked. It is not found 

 south of the Zambezi, and north of that river exists in 

 several sub-species in Angola (Penrice's waterbuck), 

 German and British East Africa, Nyasaland, Sierra Leone, 

 Nigeria, Uganda, and the Upper Nile to Abyssinia. The 

 largest recorded horns come from Toru in the north-west 

 of the Uganda Protectorate. I think the horns of the 

 waterbucks found north of Lake Victoria tend to be 

 longer, slighter, and more gracefully lunated * than those 

 of animals met with farther south. 



The habits of the sing-sing appear very similar to those 

 of the common variety. 



THE LECHWE. A little smaller than the waterbuck, 

 with the hair firmer and less coarse, the lechwe is, in 

 general colour, a darkish chestnut, becoming white below : 

 the hoofs are rather elongated and pointed, and the 

 space between them quite bare. The horns are much 

 more curved than those of the waterbuck, and the tips 

 are inclined strongly forwards. 



* Lunate crescent- shaped. 



