292 Great and Small Game of Africa 



With a strong sun shining full upon the coat from behind the observer, 

 the brilliance of the red is brought out to intensity ; but with the sun 

 beyond the animal or under a gray sky, the red partakes more of a light 

 brown, which against the dry grass of the plains is difficult to discern. 



The horns are very regular and even, and possess a very graceful treble 

 curve, curving forwards slightly, then backwards and outwards, and finally 

 forward again to the points. They are carried well laid back from the head, 

 so much so when in motion that it is then somewhat difficult to determine 

 whether a fiying animal is a buck or a doe, the latter being hornless. 



The range of this kob extends throughout the basins of the Niger 

 and the Benue, and it is, I believe, plentiful also in the Cameroons and 

 on the south-west coast of Africa. 1 In the basin of the River Benue, and 

 particularly on the left bank, it is plentiful enough for its skin to become 

 an article of export, and many thousands are obtained yearly by the native 

 Mitchi and shipped to Europe. The trade appears to have been going on 

 for years without any diminution of the herds, which are very large and 

 numerous. Herds of several thousands may be seen feeding amongst the 

 low-lying swampy plains of the Benue ; and in this respect it is the only 

 antelope which in West Africa reminds one of the stories of the South 

 and East African herds in the early days of exploration. 



Though by no means confining their feeding to the succulent shoots 

 of marshy grass, they are rarely found far from the swampy marshes of the 

 big rivers. They may wander browsing over intervening stony ridges 

 from one large tract of marshland to another, and may in the wet season 

 even lie up on the drier upper slopes, but as a rule they prefer the swamps, 

 or rather that flat low ground which is a swamp in the rains and dry in the 

 dry season. When the latter season has been running a month or so, these 

 swamps become dried up, the grass is burnt, the ground is baked as hard as 

 a rock, the short grass shoots up, and the kob confines itself almost entirely 



1 This kob is not known below the Congo, if so tar south.— Ed. 



