1881.] MR. F. C. SELOUS ON AFRICAN ANTELOPES. 761 



and is very numerous iu the open grassy plains which are always 

 more or less inundated by the Tamalakan, Mababe, Maehabe, 

 Santa, and Chobe rivers. It is also common along tlie upper Zambesi. 

 In the swamps of the Lukanga river, about l.iO miles to the south- 

 west of Lake Bengweolo, which I visited in 1878, I found the Lee- 

 gwee Antelope in large herds. 



After Speke's Antelope, the Lecliee is the most water-loving 

 Antelope with which I am acquainted, and is usually to be seen stand- 

 ing knee deep, or even up to its belly, in water, cropping the tops of 

 the grass that appear above the surface, or else lying just at the water's 

 edge. As is the case with Trugeluphus spekii, the backs of the feet 

 are devoid of hair between the hoof and the dew-claws, whilst in the 

 Pookoo, as with all other Antelopes, this part is covered with hair. 

 In some parts of the country Lee-gwee Antelopes are very tame ; in 

 others, where they are much persecuted by the natives, excessively 

 wild. When they first make up their minds to run they stretch out 

 their noses, the males laying their horns flat along their sides, and 

 trot ; but on being pressed they break into a springing gallop, now 

 and then bounding high into the air. Even when in water up to 

 their necks, they do not swim, but get along by a succession of bounds, 

 making a tremendous splashing. Of course, when the water becomes 

 too deep for them to bottom, they are forced to swim, which they 

 do well and strongly, though not as fast as the natives can paddle ; 

 and when the country is flooded, great numbers are driven into deep 

 water and speared. In the adult Lee-gwee the ears are of a uniform 

 fawn-colour ; but in the young animal they are tipped with black as 

 in the adult Pookoo. In the flooded grassy plains in the neighbour- 

 hood of Linyanti on the Chobe, this beautiful Antelope may be seen 

 in almost countless numbers, and I have counted as many as fifty-two 

 rams consorting together. Some of these were quite young, with 

 horns only a few inches in length ; but there was not a single ewe 

 amongst them. The longest ))air of Lee-gwee horns that I have 

 ever seen measured 2 feet 3 inches in length ; but it is rare to get them 

 over 2 feet long measured along the curve. In com.mon with the 

 Pookoo, they appear to me to be more tenacious of life than other 

 Antelopes. 



14. Nanotragus, scopARius (Schreb.): Brooke, P. Z< S. 1872, 

 p. 642. 



(Oribi or Oribiki of the Dutch ; Oribi of the English.) 

 North of the Limpopo, this Antelope is only to be met with in 

 the following districts, viz. in North-eastern Mashuna land from the 

 river Umzweswe to beyond the river Hanyane, in the open valleys 

 which occur between the forest belts near the watershed but to the 

 north of the Maehabe hills ; on the exposed open downs nearer 

 the watershed, and lying between the Maehabe hills and Intaba 

 Insimbi, I never saw any. On a large flat about fifty miles to the 

 south of the junction of the Umfule and Umniati rivers, I saw a 

 good many Oribi in 1880. Except in this district of the Mashuna 

 Proc. Zool. Soc— 1881, No. XLIX. 49 



