The Situtunga 475 



3 feet 4 or 5 inches at the shoulder. During the same year, 1879, I also 

 found the remains of a fine male situtunga which had been killed by a 

 leopard just outside one of the reed-beds of the Chobi. 



The skull of this specimen is now in the collection of the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington. Although so little is known of 

 these animals by Europeans, there can be no doubt that they are plentiful 

 in the vast reed-beds and papyrus swamps which they frequent, and in 

 certain seasons of heavy floods, when the water in these reed-beds becomes 

 so deep that the natives can paddle all over them in their canoes, great 

 numbers of situtungas are killed. The headman of a small village on the 

 Zambesi between Sesheke and the mouth of the Chobi told me that he 

 and his people had killed fifteen of these antelopes in one day in a reed- 

 bed near their village during a heavy flood. I also learned from the 

 natives that when in seasons of flood the water in the reed-beds becomes 

 deep enough to allow a canoe to be paddled through them, the situtungas, 

 when they perceive a canoe approaching, do not attempt to run away, 

 but just sink down in the water, where they happen to be standing, 

 submerging the whole of their bodies and only leaving their nostrils above 

 the surface, through which they breathe. When in this position, they are 

 said to allow a canoe to be paddled alongside of them without moving, 

 trusting that their enemies will pass them unobserved, and are then killed 

 with assegais. I examined a considerable number of the skins of situtunga 

 antelopes in the possession of the natives on the Chobi and the Zambesi, 

 and as I found that they had all been killed with assegais and not shot, 

 I have no doubt that they were killed in the manner I have described. 

 In very dry seasons I believe that the natives sometimes kill situtunga 

 antelopes by setting fire to the drier portions of the reed-beds, and driving 

 the animals into the open channels of water, whilst swimming across 

 which they are speared from canoes. During the recent desiccation of 

 Lake Ngami, and the reed-beds of the Upper Botletlie and Lower 



