12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6l 



tail blackish brown. The figure of Thomas kob in the " Book of 

 Antelopes " is quite faulty and fails to show the white hoof bands and 

 the dark tip to the tail and ears, which are characteristic of the equa- 

 torial kobs. 



Measurements. — No flesh measurements available ; tanned skin, 

 length, 1,570 mm. ; tail, 220 ; hindfoot, 385 ; ear, 125. Skull : condylo- 

 basal length, 285 ; zygomatic breadth, 107 ; length of upper tooth 

 row, 68 ; tooth row to tip of premaxillae, 96 ; width of palate from 

 outside of M 1 , 67; height of brain case from fronto-parietal suture 

 to lower surface of basi-sphenoidal process, 97; nasals, 118x25; 

 length of premaxillse, 90. The type is a very aged specimen with the 

 premolars worn down almost level with the gums and to such an 

 extent that the enamel folds are quite lost. The horn tips are also 

 worn away leaving the horns quite short and without the upward 

 sweep which gives them their characteristic S-shape. 



The hair in this race is considerably shorter on the neck. At the 

 hair whorl it is 20 mm. or less in length, while in Guas Ngishu speci- 

 mens the hair at the same point usually exceeds 30 mm. There are 

 in the National Museum nine specimens from Rhino Camp, Lado 

 Enclave, and nine specimens from the Guas Ngishu for comparison. 

 The male skulls do not show much difference in size with the excep- 

 tion of the flatness of the brain case, but the two female skulls from 

 Rhino Camp are decidedly smaller than the three of this sex from the 

 Guas Ngishu Plateau. 



Remarks. — The kobs in East Africa and Uganda are limited to the 

 Nile watershed throughout which they are universally distributed 

 over the grassy plains areas. All the Nile kobs appear to be races of 

 the western species or Buffon kob, Adenota kob. At their northern 

 limit in the Nile Valley the old males usually assume deep seal brown 

 or black upper parts similar to the adult livery of the sable antelope 

 and the male of the Nile lechwe, Onototragus megaceras. Some indi- 

 viduals, however, do not assume this dark # coat except to a slight de- 

 gree, that is only upon the sides of the throat, the shoulders and the 

 legs and flanks and snout. Such rufous colored individuals were de- 

 scribed as a new race, A. nigroscapulata, by Matschie in 1899. More 

 recently in 1906 Lydekker applied the name A. vaughani to similarly 

 colored specimens from the same region. Both of these races are based 

 on immature or rufous colored individuals of the white-eared kob with 

 which they agree in having the ears white or cream-buffy on the outer 

 surface and the lower parts of the legs, halfway to the knees whitish. 

 Some of these rufous individuals show, by the worn condition of their 



