284 Great and Small Game of Africa 



has merely a white elliptical line on each buttock. The defassa sing- 

 sings are also larger and heavier beasts than the ellipsiprymnus found 

 in East Africa, and although they vary a good deal in colour accord- 

 ing to age, they are also on the whole much darker and have a 

 good deal of rufous hair on the upper part of the face and back of 

 the head. Their coat is very rough and coarse and also very greasy. 

 The hair on the neck of the cow is longer than on the bull, and 

 stands up close to the head, forming a small ruff round the throat. 

 As a trophy the head of a good defassa is incomparably superior to the 

 East African waterbuck, as I have seen two beautiful heads with horns of 

 33 inches, whereas 29 inches is an exceptionally fine head for a waterbuck, 

 the average being under 27 inches. In Toro, where the two heads 

 mentioned above came from, and on the west side of Lake Albert, the 

 beasts are far and away finer than those from any other part, and I believe 

 Major Sitwell obtained one in 1897 with 36-inch horns. Why certain 

 antelopes should differ so much, not only in size but in the development of 

 horn, in various localities, even where these are only a comparatively short 

 distance apart, is one of the most interesting of natural history problems, and 

 one which I do not think will be solved by even a most careful field 

 naturalist, without the aid of science. That the chemical properties in the 

 grass have a great deal to do with it, I think there can be no doubt ; but 

 who can analyse and find out the component parts of the grasses from 

 various parts unless they have all the appliances, and can visit the localities 

 for the purpose. Perhaps if samples of the soil were sent home for analysis, 

 it might help us considerably. Of one thing I am myself convinced, that 

 the quality, judged from external appearance, i.e. the luxuriance and fine or 

 coarse look of the grass, has nothing to do with either the development of 

 horn or size of a beast ; neither does it at all follow that a species which is 

 larger and heavier in one locality than in another has a finer horn-growth ; 

 in fact it is often the reverse. 



