320 



UNGULATES. 



Habits. 



placed by Jackson's hartebeest (B. jacksoni), distinguished by the uniform pale 

 colour of the face ; the hair being reversed for a distance of only about 4 inches 

 above the muzzle. The horns are of about the same dimensions as those of the 

 hartebeest ; in the typical specimen their length being 20f inches along the front 

 curves, with a basal girth of 12 inches; but in a second example the length was 

 23£ inches. 



Writing of the common hartebeest, Mr. Drummond states that it 

 is one of the fastest antelopes in Africa, and possesses such strength 



as to render it almost impossible for 

 anything under a whole pack of 

 strong and swift hounds to bring it 

 to bay. " It is common in the great 

 level grass-plains to the north-west 

 of Zululand, and on several occasions 

 I tried coursing them there with two 

 very fast crossed Amaponda grey- 

 hounds ; but although the latter 

 could run up to them when they had 

 a fair start, they never once suc- 

 ceeded in bringing one to bay, or 

 even in causing one to separate from 

 the herd." In such districts it appears 

 that the only way to obtain a suc- 

 cessful shot is for the hunter to 

 conceal himself in a ravine, and 

 have the antelope driven in his 

 direction. 



Cooke's Cooke's hartebeest (B. cookei), of British and German East Africa, 



Hartebeest. brings us to a group of three species, readily distinguished from all 

 the preceding forms by the wide expansion of their horns, as shown in the figure 

 of the skull. The other two members of this group are the tora antelope (B. tora), 

 of Upper Nubia and Abyssinia, which is represented on the left side of our illustra- 

 tion on p. 317; and Swayne's hartebeest (B. swaynei), of Somaliland, of which the 

 head is shown in the accompanying woodcut and the skull on p. 159. In all these 

 species the hair of the face is reversed only for a distance of 2 inches or less above 

 the muzzle. In Swayne's hartebeest — the sig of the Somalis — the general colour is 

 reddish chestnut, the face being marked by a broad purplish streak extending from a 

 little distance below the eyes. The horns expand very widely, rising at first nearly 

 in the plane of the face, and then forming a right angle with the middle line of the 

 forehead ; their smooth tips being bent at right angles to the base, and directed 

 immediately backwards. Their length varies from 15 to 18]- inches. In regard to 

 the habitat of this species, Captain Swayne writes, that to the " south of the 

 highest ranges of Somaliland, and at a distance of about one hundred miles from 

 the coast, are open plains, some four thousand or five thousand feet above sea-level, 

 alternating with broken ground covered with thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth 

 of aloes growing sometimes to a height of six feet. This elevated country, called 



UPPER PART Of SKULL AND HORNS OF COOKE'S 

 hartebeest. (From Giinther.) 



