ANTELOPES 155 



The lechwe ranges from Lake Ngami northwards along 

 the Kwando and the upper Zambezi and its tributaries, 

 wherever conditions are favourable to its habits, and 

 extends into north-east Rhodesia. In the Lake Mweru 

 district there is a curious variety of type, the old males 

 being almost black on the upper parts of the body and 

 outer surfaces of the limbs. 



Lechwe inhabit the great reed swamps which, conse- 

 quent on the annual overflow, border the rivers in many 

 parts of Northern Rhodesia. After situtunga, they are 

 no doubt the most aquatic of all antelopes, and in the 

 heat of the day may be seen standing knee, and even body 

 deep in the middle of one of the large shallow lagoons 

 which occur here and there amid the wastes of reeds or 

 papyrus. They are met with in troops of considerable 

 size, ewes and herd rams generally several of the latter 

 and parties of bachelor males. When disturbed they 

 stick their noses out straight, and the males lay their 

 horns flat along their backs ; they then trot away and 

 later increase the pace to a rather heavy gallop, always 

 making for the shallow water, through which they pro- 

 gress by a series of bounds, swimming where it is out of 

 their depth, and then splashing on again when their feet 

 once more touch the bottom. At night they come ashore 

 to graze, and may sometimes be seen in the cool of the 

 morning feeding and lying down on the banks. Their 

 food consists of grass and young reeds. 



MRS. GRAY'S WATERBUCK. This animal is very much 

 like the lechwe in form, though it differs in its much darker 

 colour and striking markings. Some observers consider 

 it to be merely the northern form of the latter, which 

 perhaps has tended to lose its contrastive hues in the 

 course of its southern progress, as indicated by the dark 

 type found near Lake Mweru. This very handsome 



