298 Great and Small Game of Africa 



The males alone bear horns, which are of a brownish hue. They resemble 

 in shape the horns of the Iechwe, but are much shorter, and lack the grace- 

 ful curves which distinguish the horns of that species. I have seen a pair 

 measuring 18 inches in length, and I believe that a length of nearly 19 

 inches has been recorded. 1 In 1874 I have no doubt I might have secured 

 some very fine specimens of pookoo horns on the Chobi River if I had 

 shot a number of rams and picked out the heads with the longest horns. 

 However, I seldom interfered with these animals, and only shot a few of 

 them for food, amongst them two adult rams, whose heads I still have in 

 my collection. The horns of both these specimens measure 16 inches, 

 which is probably about the average length of the horns of full-grown 

 males of this species in that district. 



When a pookoo antelope is wounded it does not, as a rule, at once make 

 for water, but usually runs straight away from the river, and seeks refuge 

 amongst bush and forest. If followed up, however, and hard pressed, it will 

 take to the water, and swim boldly across a crocodile-infested stream in 

 order to escape from its pursuers. The meat of the pookoo is inferior to that 

 of any other South African antelope with which I am acquainted, being 

 coarse and flavourless even when the animals are in good condition. Pookoo 

 antelopes must, I think, drop their young somewhat later than most other 

 South African antelopes, probably in November and December, as I do not 

 remember to have seen any newly-born kids amongst the many herds of 

 these animals that I saw on the bank of the Chobi in September and 

 October 1874. The pookoo is not naturally a very alert animal, and when 

 I first met with it, at a time when the country in which I found it was 

 almost virgin ground for the European hunter, it always appeared to me to 

 be duller of sight and more easily approached — against the wind of course — 



1 Since this was written several remarkably fine pairs of pookoo horns have been brought to England 

 from the neighbourhood of Lake Bcngweolo by Mr. Frank Smithennan. One of these pairs of horns 

 is very much larger than anything I ever saw in the Chobi, being not only very long (20} inches) but 

 also remarkably thick and heavy. 



