262 ZAMBEZIAN ZOOLOGY 



acquaintanceships. If he were built on more 

 elegant lines, the Hartebeeste would be an interest- 

 ing, I had almost written a prepossessing animal ; 

 but he is too high on the withers and too low on 

 the croup. Added to this, the beast's head is dis- 

 proportionately long and big, and he has a way of 

 cantering off as though all four of his feet were oif 

 the ground at once. There is a considerable differ- 

 ence both in the size and colouring of the two 

 sexes, the males being of a dark rufous chestnut, 

 whilst the females are much paler in colour and 

 smaller in size. Both sexes carry horns, which are 

 not very desirable as trophies. The Hartebeeste is 

 amazingly tenacious of life, and I suppose probably 

 every hunter of great game possesses recollections 

 of having lost them when severely wounded oftener 

 than any other beast. The chief point in shooting 

 this animal is that it furnishes you with a supply of 

 most excellent meat ; but unless the head-skin be 

 taken, and the whole carefully mounted, there is 

 little to redeem the long, coffin-shaped skull which 

 hangs from so many East African walls from an 

 aspect of utter gruesomeness. 



An interesting and very beautiful cervicaprine is 

 the Impala {jEpiceros vielampus), found in these 

 forests in large herds. The Impala is the imper- 

 sonation of grace and elegance from the dainty, 

 annulated, lyre-shaped horns to the small, well- 

 formed, pointed foot. Curiously enough, in Zam- 

 bezia the horns never attain so great a size as in 

 British East Africa, where they are also common.* 



* This may be due to the fact that the Zambezi species is slightly 

 smaller than that found in the East African forests. 



