APPENDIX. 241 



The bongo comes midway between the bushbuck group and the eland group. The female 

 has horns as has the female eland, and the horns of the former are not unlike those of the latter, 

 except for the curve and for the white tips. These ivory-like tips are also possessed by the 

 bongo's relations, the kudu and the situtunga. The bongo does not bark as does the bushbuck 

 family, but makes a snuffling noise more like that of the eland. 



An old male is said to have no hair in the centre of its back, from the rubbing of the horns 

 when they are thrown back in passing through obstacles. 



Like the eland, the bongo's stripes fade, become merged, and are lost as the animal grows 

 old. In the young adult animals the colouring is very effective, the body being of a rich chestnut 

 red with bright white stripes. The Wandorobo catch this animal by means of game-pits, or by 

 rounding it up with dogs and then shooting it. They tell me that they are unable to stalk and 

 shoot it, as they are sometimes stated to be able to do. 



The meat is most excellent, and so is every part of it, the marrow, the tongue, and even the 

 tail for soup. It is a very fat meat, and much superior even to eland. 



BUFFALO, CAPE. 



Native Names. 



Swahili Mbogo. Nyati. ^ . fOl-aro. 



Ogieg Ng'wesit (?). (01-osowan. 



Kavirondo Joi. Ogiek (Ravine) Sawayet. 



Kitaita Mbogo. Luganda Embogo. 



This animal has sadly diminished in numbers since the rinderpest. Before that disease it 

 is said that countless herds might be seen on the Athi Plains ; whilst below the Nandi Hills, 

 near Lake Victoria, numbers used to roam. Von Hohnel describes great herds met with by 

 Count Teleki in the Rift Valley, near Baringo, where now hardly a head is to be seen. Owing 

 to strict preservation this animal has of late years recovered slightly from the devastation 

 caused by the rinderpest, and in some places is fairly numerous. However, nowhere are such 

 vast herds to be met with now as in the days prior to the wholesale destruction caused by this 

 disease. 



As a dangerous animal it has in recent times much declined in popular estimation. This is 

 only natural, as where sportsmen used to be able to shoot hundreds, they may nowadays only 

 look at a few from a distance or shoot but one on a licence. So to-day the risks run, and therefore 

 the accidents occurring, are reduced a hundredfold. 



A herd of buffaloes, when alarmed, conveys the idea of a heaving sea of horns and tails, a 

 sufficiently formidable-looking mass, although you know that they will practically always stampede 

 away from you. When lying down, there are generally a few cows standing up as sentinels ; at 

 least, this has been my experience, although Von Hohnel, who must have seen many more herds 

 than I have or am ever likely to see, states that it is the males who stand as sentries. 



Buffalo and gnu, when at a distance, may be distinguished from a herd of zebra from the fact 

 that the latter graze with their heads all in one direction, whilst the former generally feed facing 

 in various directions. If it were not for this peculiarity they would look very like one another 

 when in the far distance, as at that range they both look big, black, bulky animals when the sun 

 is not shining on their flanks. 



I I 



