SOME NATURAL HISTORY 265 



they can lie and how effectually they can escape 

 detection. 



The reedbuck has short horns, usually between 

 seven and ten inches in length, but one of our party 

 secured one set of horns ten and a quarter inches 

 long an exceptionally fine head. The reedbuck's 

 distinguishing characteristic is a sharp whistle, 

 which he sounds shrilly when alarmed. 



Another beautiful antelope that we met in small 

 numbers on the Tana River and on the Guas 

 Ngihsu Plateau was the bushbuck, found in thick 

 scrub along rivers and also in the swamps and wet 

 places. This animal belongs to a select little coterie 

 of highly prized and rare antelopes, all of which 

 have the distinguishing feature of a spiral horn. 



The bushbuck is the smallest, and is found over 

 nearly all of East Africa except upon the open 

 plains and deserts. The females are of a dark 

 chestnut color, and the males dark, almost black, 

 with white markings on the neck and forelegs. A 

 bushbuck with fifteen-inch horns is considered a 

 fine prize, although horns of nineteen inches are on 

 record. 



The other members of the same family of spiral- 

 horned antelopes are the kudu, the lesser kudu, the 

 situtunga, the nyala, the bongo, and the lordly 

 eland, king of all antelopes in size. The kudu is 

 largely protected in East Africa, and in my shoot- 

 ing experience I was not in a district where he was 

 to be found. The same was true with respect to the 

 lesser kudu. The nyala is a South African species 



