322 



UNGULATES. 



Herota. 



met with in the hills, if not too steep and rocky, and in the plains, but it appears to 

 prefer a flat or undulating country, well-wooded and with intervening open glades. 

 It is frequently found feeding with water-buck or zebras, and generally goes in 

 small herds of from five or six to fifteen or twenty. Its vitality appears to be 

 nearly equal to that of the water-buck. 



Perhaps the handsomest representative of the genus is the herota, 

 or Hunter's hartebeest (B. hunteri) — from the southern borders of 

 Somaliland, on the great river Tana — which is readily distinguished by the white 



chevron on the forehead, and the peculiar 

 form of the long horns. This fine antelope 

 stands about 4 feet at the withers, and is of 

 a uniform chestnut - brown colour, with a 

 rather long white tail, and white under-parts. 

 The chevron on the forehead has its angle 

 directed upwards, and terminates in rings 

 surrounding the eyes. The horns, after in- 

 clining upwards and outwards for a short 

 distance, run vertically upwards for a much 

 greater length, with long smooth tips. Their 

 length is about 22 inches in the males. The 

 face is still of considerable length, but the 

 hind-quarters do not slope away in the same 

 manner as in the true hartebeest. This 

 antelope is found on the plains and in thick 

 bush on the Tana River. Mr. Hunter says 

 that his party first met with this antelope 

 about one hundred and fifty miles up the 

 Tana River. " It is only found for certain 

 on the north bank of the river. It frequents 

 the grassy plains principally, but is also 

 found in thick bush. It is generally met 

 with in hex-ds of from fifteen to twenty-five 

 individuals. At the time of year when I 

 came across them (October and November) 

 I saw several young ones in the herds. The 

 banks of the Tana River are fringed with a 

 thin belt of forest; then the ground rises 

 slightly, and one sees extensive plains, dotted 

 here and there with large patches of bush, 

 composed principally of euphorbias and aloes. 

 The lesser kudu (see p. 274) lives principally 

 in these patches, and feeds outside of them 

 in the early mornings and evenings. When I first saw the new antelope I was 

 stalking two examples of Waller's gazelle, and though I saw the Hunter's antelope 

 in the distance I mistook them for impalas, which, however, are not found on the 

 Tana on either bank. It was only when I fired at the gazelles and the Hunter's 



HEAD OF HUNTER'S HARTEBEEST. 



(From Selater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1890.) 



