136 Great and Small Game of Africa 



young are invariably of the very light tone, deepening in maturity to the 

 redder colour, and again lightening towards old age. The light in which 

 the antelope is seen has also much to do with its apparent colour ; I have 

 come across a hartebeest against the sun which in its depth of tone made 

 me think I had met with a rare specimen, but which, when shot, and 

 viewed lying upon the ground, was of the average sandy-red. 



The West African hartebeest stands about 44 to 46 inches at the 

 withers, and has a strange topheavy appearance when at rest. Its face, 

 from between the horns to the tip of the nose, is very elongated, perhaps 

 the most elongated of all the hartebeests. The fall-away to the quarters is 

 considerable, so considerable that the animal only needs to extend its hind 

 feet to the rear a little to produce an almost straight line from withers 

 to heel. It carries its head well forward rather than up, but as a rule its 

 chin is withdrawn towards its chest, bringing the horns rather to the 

 front of a perpendicular line dropped through the centre of the profile of 

 the head. 



The horns are not large, ranging from 16 to 25I inches, but of an average 

 1 8 to 19 inches, the bull's being always heavier and more often irregular than 

 those of the cow. The latter, lighter and with less circumference at the 

 base, are usually very regular, the right rarely differing from the left in any 

 essential of angle, cast off, or length, and forming altogether a very pretty 

 trophy in themselves. Evenly ringed from the base for a little over two- 

 thirds of their length, the deepest indentations are in the prominent front 

 angle and to the front of the horn. The upper third is straight and fines 

 off to a very sharp point. 



The Bubalis major is to be found in the hinterland of all the west coast 

 from the Senegal to the Equator, and frequents chiefly the belt of light 

 bush which intervenes between the dense tropical forest of the coast and 

 the desert lands of the Sahara. It is unknown in the dense belt, and also 

 appears to abjure the more open countries on the far side of the light bush 



