KUDU—BUSHBUCK GROUP 83 



disturbed, do not exhibit any great rapidity of movement. Nevertheless, they are 

 not easy to hunt on horseback, as tsetse-flies are common in the districts they 

 frequent, and when pursued these antelopes invariably make for the most uneven 

 ground. The Somali race of the kudu (S. c. chord) has fewer stripes than 

 the southern animal. In Somaliland the kudu, although in most other parts 

 of Africa a water-loving antelope, has taken to browse on aloes, and is thus 

 enabled to exist for long periods without drinking. The beisa oryx, on the other 

 hand, when in waterless districts is in the habit of feeding largely on a small 

 gourd locally known as unun, which grows abundantly in the haunts of these 

 antelopes, and is full of juice. The stomach of every oryx killed during the dry 

 season in the district will be found crammed with umm seeds. 



The lesser kudu (S. imberbis), of East Africa and Somaliland, differs not only 

 by its inferior size but by the absence of a fringe of long hair on the throat and the 

 closer spiral of the horns. In Somaliland, where the larger species is met with in 

 the mountains, the smaller kind frequents the thickets at the foot. 



An exceedingly handsome group of antelopes is formed by the 

 bushbucks and their larger relatives the nyala, mountain nyala, 

 and situtunga, constituting the genus Tragelaphus. The larger species are often 

 known as harnessed antelopes. As a rule, the horns have fewer spiral turns — often 

 only one or two — than those of the kudus, and their keels are less distinctly 

 marked. The colouring and markings in the two sexes are not unfrequently 

 different, the males in some cases being dull grey brown, while the females are 

 extremely brilliant, showing, on a darker ground, stripes and spots so arranged as 

 to suggest the idea of the animals being in harness. One of the three larger 

 members of the group is the nyala, or inyala (T. angasi), ranging from Zululand 

 northwards of the Zambesi as far as the Shire. Standing about 38 inches at the 

 shoulder, the bucks carry horns measuring from 20 to 24 inches in a straight 

 line, and 23 to 29 inches along the spiral. The long coat of the bucks is greyish 

 brown in ground-colour, marked with a few faint white stripes, while that of the 

 does is mahogany-red with numerous and distinct stripes. 



A larger species, discovered in 1910, is the mountain nyala (T. buxtoni), of the 

 Arusi plateau of Gallaland, in the Sahatu Mountains. In this antelope, which 

 stands about 4 feet 4 inches at the shoulder, the horns of the bucks make about 

 one complete turn, and have the general characters of those of the nyala, although 

 relatively heavier, and diverging much more outwardly, with a very open spiral. 

 They are obliquely ridged at the base, and the long smooth terminal portion is 

 worn yellow at the tip. The length along the outer curve is 37 inches, the basal 

 girth 9£ inches, and the tip-to-tip interval 21 inches. In the type specimen the 

 coat is rather long and coarse, its general colour being speckled brown-fawn, 

 passing into dull tan on the sides of the face, and becoming darker on the front 

 surface of the muzzle, and chocolate-brown on the forehead above the white 

 chevron, which is not very conspicuous. The under-parts are lighter, but on the 

 front of the fore-legs and the lower part of the hind-pair the tuft becomes 

 considerably darker. There is a short dark brown mane on the neck, continued 

 backwards as a mingled brown and white dorsal crest. The bushy tail is white 

 beneath. The ears, which are much of the same type as those of the nyala, are of 



