THE IMPALA 151 



Although it is fairly abundant throughout 

 South-East Africa, and exceedingly plentiful in 

 Zambezia, the horns carried by the males in the 

 latter district are much smaller than those found 

 in the northern half of the continent. This 

 peculiarity, however, in no way detracts from 

 the beauty of the animal, or from the grace 

 and charm which they lend to their surroundings. 



I should regard as the most favourable haunts 

 of impala a park-like alternation of forest and 

 glade near the banks of some such river as the 

 Shire, where, above the Murchison Cataracts, I 

 have seen them in herds of fifty or more. On 

 the banks of the Zambezi they do not seem to be 

 very plentiful until the Lupata Gorge is reached. 

 Both above this point and below impala are not 

 uncommon, but the gorge itself is too stony and 

 barren for them. 



The males, rising to about 36 inches at the 

 shoulder, are ot a brilliant, glossy chestnut, 

 fading beneath their bodies to delicate fawn and 

 pure white under the belly and legs. Their 

 handsome horns are lyre-shaped and ringed, the 

 somewhat widely set annulations being separated 

 by deep notches. I suppose one would regard 

 20 inches round the curves as the measurement 

 of a good head, but then, as I have pointed out, 

 they are much smaller in Zambezia and Nyasa- 

 land than in East Africa and Uganda. 



Mr. H. L. Duff in his delightful book Nyasa- 

 land under the Foreign Office, published some 

 years ago, mentions a very curious and unusual 

 peculiarity observed by him in the case of the 



