200 Great and Small Game of Africa 



The White-Bearded Brindled Gnu (Connochates taurmus albojubatus) 



In British East Africa 



Swahili Name, Nyambu ; Masai Name, Oangat. 



The wildebeest of East Africa is, as its scientific name implies, the 

 white-bearded variety, a local form of the brindled gnu. In British 

 territory, which is undoubtedly its headquarters, its range is a somewhat 

 limited one, and certainly well defined, beginning as it does on the 

 Rombo plains between the upper waters of the Lumi and Useri Rivers, 

 which rise on the north-eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro, and extending 

 northwards as far as, but no farther than, the Athi plains. 



In German territory it extends farther south, and I have myself seen 

 and shot it about 15 miles below Arusha wa Chini, on the banks of the 

 Ruvu River ; but I am unable to say how much farther still it extends. 

 In the country lying between Kilimanjaro and the Kyulu hills there are great 

 numbers, but in no place is it so numerous as on the Athi plains, where about 

 August it assembles in very large herds. In August 1890 Dr. Mackinnon 

 and I saw one herd in which there could not have been less than 1 500 

 beasts, no doubt an exceptional number, as they are rarely seen in herds 

 of over 100, from 20 to 60 being more usual. This immense herd 

 was composed, at least nine-tenths of it, of cows with calves, which kept 

 close together in a compact mass, so much after the manner of the 

 buffalo, that, when first seen, the Doctor and I both mistook them for 

 those animals ; and it was not until we got much nearer that we found 

 out our mistake. Outside this " pack," and all round it, at distances of 

 50 to 100 yards, stood the bulls as sentinels. Stalking was out of the 

 question, so we walked straight up to them, and I shall never forget 

 the noise they made as they thundered ofF in a thick cloud of dust on 



