THE KUDU 119 



stripes, as seen in the accompanying illustration. 

 A white chevron on the frontal bone immediately 

 below the eyes, and a considerable mane of 

 greyish hair whitening near the tips runs along 

 the dorsal ridge. The beautiful spiral horns 

 which crown the shapely head have over and 

 over again been the inexhaustible theme of 

 many an enraptured sportsman, who has rightly 

 regarded them, of all others, as among his most 

 prized and cherished trophies. Added to all 

 this, the build of the animal coincides much 

 more closely Ayith our preconceived ideas of what 

 an antelope should be. Unlike most others, 

 he does not display the same bizarre tendency 

 to slope from the withers to the croup as do the 

 sable, hartebeeste, and so many others. He 

 stands upon his firmly planted feet and looks 

 just what he is, beauty and dignity harmoniously 

 blended. 



The females, smaller and paler in body, carry 

 no horns, and, so far as Zambezia is concerned 

 at any rate, run in herds which rarely exceed a 

 dozen in number. These herds, with which the 

 males consort during the greater part of the 

 year, feed upon the leaves and shoots of various 

 trees and small shrubs, also upon the forest 

 fruits in their season. They are only to a very 

 limited extent grass-eaters, but are apt, in portions 

 of the country where they are undisturbed, to 

 do considerable damage to native gardens, where 

 they display an exasperating partiality for maize 

 and other native cereals, and especially for the 

 contents of the tobacco patches. 



