The Bushbuck 481 



Eastern Race (Trage/ap/ius scriptus rouakyni) 



In East Africa 



Swahili Name, Mbawera ; Wanderobbo Name, Poineit 



In venturing the statement that I believe there is only one species of 

 bushbuck found in East Africa I am fully aware that there are many who 

 will not only demur but endeavour to prove that there are two species, the 

 striped T. scriptus, and the spotted T. sylvaticus. However, until we have 

 more data to go on, and some one can first produce a series of skins of both 

 immature and adult beasts, properly labelled with locality and date, and can 

 then point out, on the evidence of the spots and stripes only, where the one 

 begins and the other ends, I do not think that it is possible to separate them, 

 and I believe that the difference in the markings, and whether they are 

 well defined or otherwise, is purely a matter of local variation and age. 



The bushbuck is widely distributed, and is found throughout East 

 Africa where there is a sufficiency of forest and thick bush. On the island 

 of Manda and on the mainland near Lamu it is plentiful. There are also a 

 fair number of them in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro in the Taveita and 

 Kahe forests, but perhaps they are nowhere found in such plenty as in the 

 forest and wooded hollows and watercourses of Mau, both on the eastern 

 slopes and on the western plateau. 



During the day they lie up just inside the forest and only come out 

 in the evening to feed, excepting in places where they are never or 

 rarely disturbed, when they may be occasionally seen throughout the day. 

 Near the Eldoma Ravine Station, on the eastern slopes of Mau, at an 

 altitude of 7500 feet, the bushbuck is exceedingly plentiful, so much so 

 that it, together with the duiker, at one time became quite a pest and ate 

 up everything in our kitchen garden, in spite of fences, and even when a 

 war of extermination was waged against them by organised drives, which 

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