148 Great and Small Game of Africa 



smaller than the true hartebeest of the south, and its near relative, 

 B.jacksoni, which represents that form in these regions. 



It is found in wooded country, wherever the bush is not too thick 

 and there are open glades for it to graze in, but is far more plentiful in 

 grassy plains. In favourable situations of the latter kind, such as the 

 " ongata " of Masailand, these hartebeests sometimes congregate in large 

 herds, often in company with Burchell's zebra, or Grant's and sometimes 

 Thomson's gazelles ; towards the coast they occasionally associate with 

 Gazella petersi. 



The range of this species does not seem to overlap that of its neigh- 

 bouring congeners, except, perhaps, on the south side, where it is said 

 to meet B. lichtensteini at no great distance from the boundary between the 

 British and German territories, extending into the latter as far south as 

 Mpwapwa. Inland its nearest neighbour of the genus is B. neumaiwi, 

 the verge of whose range it approaches in the neighbourhood of Lake 

 Naivasha, as has been pointed out to me by Mr. F. J. Jackson. Kikuyu, 

 Mount Kenia, the Jambeni Hills, and the Mackenzie branch of the Tana, 

 continue successively the limit of this species towards the north, the 

 corner formed by these two last-named features being apparently its extreme 

 northerly extension. It is not found much west of the longitude of 

 Naivasha. As to its easterly limits I am not so clear, though I have not 

 heard of it being met with east of the Tana ; but the country between 

 that river and the Juba is very little known. 



In common with the other members of its genus, which it 

 resembles in its somewhat ungainly appearance and rather stiff but 

 wonderfully springy gait, this hartebeest is fleet and enduring, seem- 

 ing, when put to speed, to spurn the earth with hardly an effort. 

 Like them, too, its flesh is excellent meat, always providing (an 

 important consideration with all game) that the individual animal be in 

 good condition. The choicest venison in the case of all antelopes is ever 



