44° Great and Small Game of Africa 



THE KOODOOS 



Genus Strepsiceros 



Koodoos differ from elands not only by the absence of horns in the 

 females, but likewise by the open spiral of at least two turns formed by 

 those of the males. The tail is shorter and more bushy, not reaching to 

 the hocks, and the neck is maned, while there may be a fringe to the 

 throat. In colour the two sexes are alike, and the hair of the body is 

 short. The skull, like that of the eland, has a deep depression in the fore- 

 head, and large unossified spaces in the neighbourhood of the nose-bones. 

 The genus is represented by the two under-mentioned species, viz. : — 



A. Size large, throat fringed. 



i. Greater Kudu, or Koodoo {Strepsiceros kudu). 



B. Size much smaller, throat smooth. 



2. Lesser Kudu, or Koodoo [Strepsiceros imberbis). 



The Koodoo {Strepsiceros kudu) 

 In South and South Central Africa 



Koodoo, the name by which one of the most beautiful animals in the 

 whole world is known to European sportsmen, must be, I think, a word of 

 Hottentot origin, since it is not Dutch, nor does it at all resemble any of 

 the many equivalents for the same animal used by the various Bantu tribes 

 inhabiting South and South Central Africa. 



This splendid antelope was once widely distributed through the southern 

 portion of the African continent. Two conditions are necessary to its 

 existence — water and bush ; the latter in the shape either of thickets or 

 forests amongst which there is a good deal of scrubby undergrowth, 



