CHAPTER VI 



KUDU : WATEB-BUCK : WILDEBEESTE : HARTE- 

 BEESTE : TSESSEBE 



As shy as he is beautiful, and harmless as he 

 is shy, this grandest and stateliest of all the 

 antelopes is a lover of rocky, forested foothills 

 and ravines, thick brushwood, and denser 

 brakes than any others of his commanding 

 size. Nowhere very numerous, the Kudus of 

 Zambezia, especially that portion lying to the 

 south of the great river, are still struggling to 

 increase their never very great numbers, which 

 were sadly depleted by the rinderpest of 1896. 

 I fancy, on the whole, they appear to be more 

 plentiful in the middle and north of the Queli- 

 mane district than in any other part of Portuguese 

 East Africa, if we except that of Portuguese 

 Nyasaland, where, I am informed, they occur in 

 great numbers. 



I do not think that any person who had not 

 seen with his own eyes the delicate colouring, 

 symmetry of form, and grace of proportion of a 

 well-grown kudu bull would believe from mere 

 description that so splendid a creature was 

 known to zoology. Standing 14 hands at the 

 shoulder, his prevailing colour is a soft mousy 

 grey, with several clearly marked vertical white 



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