444 Great and Small Game of Africa 



tributaries than in the valley of the Zambesi, or along any of the rivers 

 which flow into that river. This, however, is only a theory unsupported 

 by any kind of statistical evidence except the average size of horns. These 

 magnificent trophies have been known to attain to a length of 4 feet, 

 measured in a straight line from point to base. 



Indeed I saw and measured a pair which taped 48 and 48^ inches 

 respectively, the longest horn taping 63 inches over the outside curve. 1 



The splendid animal that carried this magnificent pair of horns was one 

 of three koodoos shot by a young Englishman during his first hunting trip, 

 on one of the tributaries of the Limpopo. Probably neither Gordon- 

 Cumming nor Cornwallis Harris ever saw such a koodoo, and many an 

 old hunter has grown gray in the pursuit of South African game without 

 ever encountering such a giant of his race. In some koodoo horns 

 the spiral twist is much sharper than in others, and I think that the 

 handsomest horns are those in which the curves are most pronounced. I 

 have a pair in my own collection, the owner of which I shot near the 

 Umfuli River in Mashunaland in 1880. These horns measure 64 inches 

 over the curve, though they only tape 41 inches in a straight line from 

 point to base ; whilst my finest pair of horns (measured in a straight line 

 from point to base, 45 J inches) measure slightly less than 61 inches over 

 the curve. In South Africa I should consider any pair of koodoo horns 

 that measure 42 inches in a straight line from point to base a good pair, 

 and anything over 44 inches exceedingly fine. Koodoo cows are hornless 

 as a general rule, though now and again an individual is met with carrying 

 a small pair of irregularly-shaped horns. Four instances of this kind have 

 come under my notice, in two of which the horns seemed to be loose and 

 not attached to the skull. One of these abnormal female koodoo heads 

 is in my own collection. I found the original owner myself lying dead 

 not far from Bamangwato, freshly killed by wild dogs. In this instance 



1 This head is now recorded in the latest edition of Mr. Rowland Ward's most useful book of horn 



