206 Great and Small Game of Africa 



The White-Tailed Gnu, or Black Wildebeest {Connochates gnu) 



Gnu or Gnoo of the Hottentots ; Zwart Wildebeest of the 

 Cape Dutch. 



The white-tailed gnu is known almost universally in South Africa by 

 the name — wildebeest or wild ox — bestowed upon it some two hundred 

 years ago by the Boers when, as they moved inland from Table Bay, they first 

 encountered it. After the brindled gnu, or blue wildebeest, was discovered 

 in the early part of this century, the Dutch hunters differentiated the two 

 species by christening the white-tailed gnu the zwart, or black, wildebeest, 

 and the brindled gnu the blaauw, or blue, wildebeest. The black wilde- 

 beest, the subject of this article, has derived its European name gnu from 

 the word gnoo or gnu, by which, from time immemorial, it was known to 

 the Hottentots. 



The South African Dutch colonists, when they first encountered this, 

 the strangest, wildest, and most eccentric-looking of all the antelopes, had, 

 undoubtedly, some reason for christening it wildebeest, or wild ox. Both 

 the wildebeests, although true antelopes, bear certain strong points of 

 resemblance to the bovine race, and may be looked upon as connecting links 

 between the two groups. The adult male of the white-tailed gnu stands 

 about 4 feet at the shoulder and measures about 9 feet in extreme length. 

 The general body colour is dark brown. The frame is shapely, strong, and 

 muscular ; the neck thick and arching, and surmounted by a full, creamy- 

 drab, upstanding, hog mane. The body, and especially the quarters, are, 

 as old hunters often observed, somewhat like those of a small well-bred 

 pony. The legs are thoroughly antelopean, fine, clean, hard, and beautifully 

 slender. The hoofs are somewhat narrow and pointed, and the spoor of a 

 black wildebeest may be readily identified by any one conversant with the 

 footprints of the numerous South African antelopes. The head is distinctly 



