166 SAVAGE SUDAN 



all naturally preferred to secure the handsomer, black- 

 coated trophies farther south. Hence we have all (myself 

 included) left neglected and unexamined the northern 

 race, which remains virtually unknown. 



One first sees these handsome antelopes at a point 

 about 300 miles south of Khartoum. While northward- 

 bound in 1913, I carefully examined two or three troops 

 a trifle north of that point. Though all were uniformly 

 tawny, yet, to my surprise, several bucks carried fine 



WHITE-EARED COB. Sketched South of Kaka, January 24th, 1914. 



heads one in particular the best I had seen that year. 

 Similar experiences befell later on Abba Island for 

 example; but having already shot my "limit," no speci- 

 men could be legally secured. Though four head per 

 year is ample allowance for a sportsman, it necessarily 

 handicaps the investigations of a naturalist. 



It is not till after passing Jebel Ahmed Agha (340 

 miles) that one notices the earliest indications of a "black 

 coat," and from thence southward the traveller enters the 

 typical domain of Adenota leucotis. At dawn and dusk 

 the riverain prairies become "quick" with thirsty files, 

 and, whether a hunter or not, everyone capable of 



