The Bushbuck 485 



River bushbuck is also dark red, but has as many as fifty spots on each side, 

 and eight well-defined stripes. All South African bushbuck, however, 

 have the bare " neck-collar," the white bars on throat and chest, an erectile 

 mane of white and dark hairs from shoulder to tail, along the back, 

 the tragelaphine face- markings, and black-tipped tail, while in all the 

 disposition of the white markings on the limbs is similar. The young of 

 the Zambesi bushbucks are less spotted than the adults, but exactly the 

 reverse is the case in the more southern forms. In parts of the old Colony 

 a browner-coloured bushbuck, said to be longer in the leg than the other, 

 is met with. The maximum shoulder-height I have yet recorded from 

 the Colony is 2 feet 9 inches for a ram, and 2 feet 5 inches for a ewe. 

 The maximum dimensions I have obtained from the North-East Transvaal, 

 from amongst the records of many hundreds which I have shot, are as 

 follows : — Extreme length tip to tip 5 feet 3 inches ; vertical standing 

 height 3 feet ; girth of collar 24^ inches. Horns set behind the eyes at a 

 slight angle from the plane of the frontals — spiral (forming a turn and a 

 half) more or less divergent and recurved forward, keeled, black with straw- 

 coloured tips. Thirteen inches is a good average length for the horns. My 

 largest pair measures 16 inches. The longest pair recorded by Mr. Rowland 

 Ward is ic^V inches. Ears short, wide, and rounded. The cry of the 

 bushbuck is a short, deep bark, uttered by both sexes when alarmed, or on 

 seeing anything suspicious, the nature of which they cannot understand. 



These antelopes are found in suitable localities throughout South Africa, 

 and, owing to their retiring habits, will be the last to remain. They are 

 strictly preserved in the Cape Colony for six months in each year, and this 

 fact, together with the security afforded by the vast areas of scrub-jungle 

 in the country, has conduced to the perpetuation of the species in larger 

 numbers than anywhere else in South Africa. Thickly-wooded country, 

 or open ground, intersected by deep bush-kloofs, is the favourite resort of 

 bushbuck. A certain amount of low bush and scrub is necessary, for in 



