150 SAVAGE SUDAN 



"protection" ; but physical obstacles such as that present 

 small terrors to many of our big-game hunters. 



The Nile lechwi forms one of a genus of two semi- 

 amphibious antelopes which possess no relations either 

 in Africa or elsewhere. The second is the Zambesi 

 lechwi (Onotragus lechee\ and the pair are separated by 

 1000 miles of intervening space. 



The Nile lechwi is confined, not to the "Sudd" 

 proper (which it never enters), but to those circumjacent 



NILE LECHWI, OR SADDLEBACK, CHASED BY SHILLUK DOGS. 



areas where sudd-like swamps prevail. For the actual 

 Sudd itself, Nature has designed another form even 

 more amphibious than the lechwi, to wit, the Situtunga 

 (Limnotragus). Herein we find an instance of physical 

 adaptation worthy of a few moments' consideration. The 

 degrees of specialisation provided by Nature to adapt each 

 of these two animals respectively to its own assigned 

 habitat (let us call those habitats, in the one case, 

 " treacherous swamp " ; in the other, " bottomless bog ") 

 are beautifully evidenced in the forms of their hoofs. In 

 both species the hoofs are so specially elongated as to 

 afford firm foothold on rotten ooze or surface-floatage 

 not otherwise traversable. But in the situtunga (which is 



