— 
ALLEN: MAMMALS FROM THE BLUE NILE VALLEY. ile 
had learned to keep under cover during most of the daylight hours, 
they were extraordinarily tame. Unless the wind brought the taint 
of human scent, they were almost without fear, but stood gazing 
within a few yards. On the Dinder they were commonly in small 
groups, often an old buck with three or four does and once a younger 
buck On becoming alarmed the does would retreat at once leaving 
the old buck standing at gaze. We once came suddenly upon a young- 
ish animal that evidently had not seen us until it suddenly looked up 
from feeding a few yards to one side of the trail. At once it dropped 
flat upon the ground with head stretched out. We watched it a few 
moments, and as soon as we passed on it lifted its head to gaze after 
us, but remained crouching among the few stalks of tall grass that 
afforded not the slightest cover. 
Near Um Orug I watched a Reedbuck as it came to water, shortly 
after noon, with several Ariel. It drank much longer than they, 
stopping now and then to look about, but apparently quite uncon- 
cerned for the crocodiles, several of which lay a short distance off in 
the water. On one of the large open ‘meres’ we found Reedbuck 
active and apparently grazing by moonlight late in the evening. 
They were always the last of the antelope to take fright and run off 
when the caravan came out upon the ‘mere’ where they were feeding. 
We saw two large bucks, each with the tip of a horn broken off. 
It is possible that our specimens may be referable to the race 
cotton but material is not at hand to settle this point. 
Johnson (1903) records killing a very large one on the Dinder at 
Durraba in 1901, but we saw none so far down that river. 
Cosus DEFASSA (Riippell). 
Abyssinian Waterbuck. 
Antilope defassa Riippell, Neue wirbelth. fauna Abyssinien. Sdugeth., 1835, 
~ 
mo, pl. 3. 
On the Blue Nile the Waterbuck is greatly reduced in numbers 
and no doubt will be practically gone in the course of a few years. 
We saw almost nothing of it on this river, though Dr. Phillips found 
a few near Adreiba above Roseires, and we were shown a fair head 
killed near the latter place by Mr. Savage, then acting chief of the 
district. Cotton, however, in 1911, found Waterbuck at Bados, but 
if any are to be found below this region, they must be rare indeed. 
