984 ON THE SKIN OF AN AifTBLOPE FROM liAKE MWEEU. [^OV. 28, 



specimen is essentially of the Puku type, but broadly distinguished 

 by the circumstance that while the skull itself is slightly shorter 

 than that of an average-sized Puku skull in the British Museum, 

 the horns are very much longer and stouter. In the Puku skull 

 the length from the fronto-parietal suture to the tip of the nasals, 

 measured in a straight line, is 8-5 inches, while in Sir E. Loder's 

 specimen the corresponding dimension is but 8 inches. In the 

 present specimen the horns have more ridges (17) and relatively 

 shorter tips than any Puku horns I have seen ; they measure 20-3 

 inches aloug the front curve, 8*0 inches in basal circumference, 

 and 8-1 inches between the tips. Now the only horns assigned 

 to the Puku with which I am acquainted that have anything like 

 these dimensions are a pair obtained by Mr. Smitheman from the 

 Luswesi Valley, in the neighbourhood of Lake Bangweolo, which 

 lies S.S.E. of Lake Mweru ; these horns measuring 20| inches 

 along the curve, 8^ in basal girth, and 12| from tip to tip \ 



The wide interval between the tips I consider of no importance, 

 but in other respects these horns agree very closely as regards 

 measurements with Sir E. Loder's specimen. And they differ 

 from the next specimen of Puku horns (19| in.) in Mr. Eowland 

 Ward's list ^ by the much greater girth, the basal circumference 

 of the latter being 6| inches. 



Accordingly, so far as horn-measurements alone are concerned, 

 there would seem a probability that Mr. Smitheman's Lake 

 Bangweolo skull may be specifically identical with Sir E. Loder's 

 specimen. And if this be so, there arises the question whether 

 both are not referable to G. smithemani. But if the evidence of 

 the correspondent quoted above as to the Lechwi-like character 

 of the horns of the Antelope presumed to be identical with the 

 latter be reliable, this can hardly be the case. It must also be 

 remembered that Lake Bangweolo is a considerable distance from 

 Lake Mweru, so that each district (in spite of the fact that the true 

 Puku and Lechwi extend from the Chobi-Zambesi Valley to Lake 

 Mweru) may have its own particular species or race of Kob. 



The matter is one of great difficulty, and I may be accused of 

 rashness in what I propose to do, which is to consider, for the 

 present, Sir E. Loder's specimen as typifying a large-horned race 

 of Puku to be known as Cohus vardoni locleri, until it can be either 

 proved to be the same as G. smithemani or entitled to rank as a 

 species by itself. Whether Mr. Smitheman's large Puku head from 

 Lake Bangweolo belongs to the same form may be left an open 

 question. 



1 See Rowland Ward, ' Eecords of Big Game,' p. 189 (1899). 

 - Log. cit. 



